Editing Linda Ronstadt (section)

=== Artistic aspirations ===
Ronstadt has remarked that in the beginning of her career she "was so focused on folk, rock and country" that she "got a bit bored and started to branch out, and ... [has] been doing that ever since."<ref name="bored12">{{Cite news |last=Saitowitz |first=Paul |date=May 31, 2007 |title=Linda Ronstadt to Play at Fantasy Springs |work=[[The Press-Enterprise|Press-Enterprise]] |location=Riverside, California |url=http://www.pe.com/entertainment/stories/PE_Ent_Guide_D_ronstadt01.19591ed.html |url-status=dead |access-date=June 6, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929095508/http://www.pe.com/entertainment/stories/PE_Ent_Guide_D_ronstadt01.19591ed.html |archive-date=September 29, 2007}}</ref> By 1983, her estimated worth was over $40&nbsp;million<ref name="Reported worth">{{Cite web |date=March 26, 1984 |title=What's New with Linda Ronstadt? She's Singing Her Love Songs to ''Star Wars'' Czar George Lucas |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20087434,00.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227172203/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20087434,00.html |archive-date=February 27, 2012 |access-date=November 24, 2012 |website=[[People (magazine)|People]] |volume=21 |issue=12}}</ref> mostly from records, concerts and merchandising.

In the early 1980s, Ronstadt was criticized for accepting $500,000 to perform at the South African resort [[Sun City (South Africa)|Sun City]], violating [[Apartheid#Cultural boycott|the cultural boycott]] imposed against South Africa because of its policy of [[apartheid]].<ref>Latham, Aaron (August 18, 1983). "Linda Ronstadt: Snow White in South Africa". ''[[Rolling Stone]]''. Retrieved January 29, 2013. {{subscription required}}</ref><ref>[[Robert Christgau|Christgau, Robert]] (1990) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg80/further.php "Subjects for Further Research"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160327014939/http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg80/further.php|date=March 27, 2016}}. ''Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s'' Pantheon Books, {{ISBN|0-679-73015-X}} (via robertchristgau.com). Retrieved January 29, 2013.</ref><ref>Santoro, Gene (March 12, 1988). [https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-6441785 "Miriam Makeba. (Music) (column)"]{{dead link|date=July 2021}}. ''The Nation''</ref> At the time, she stated, "the last place for a boycott is in the arts" and "I don't like being told I can't go somewhere".<ref>Wilson, John M. (May 19, 1985). [https://www.chicagotribune.com/1985/05/19/uns-register-of-performers-raises-blacklist-spectre-in-s-africa-boycott/ "UN`s `Register` Of Performers Raises Blacklist Spectre In S. Africa Boycott"] . ''[[Chicago Tribune]]''. Retrieved January 29, 2013.</ref> [[Paul Simon]] was criticized for including her on his 1986 album ''[[Graceland (album)|Graceland]]'', recorded in South Africa, but defended her: "I know that her intention was never to support the government there ... She made a mistake. She's extremely liberal in her political thinking and unquestionably antiapartheid."<ref name="Odyssey">{{Cite magazine |last=Fricke |first=David |author-link=David Fricke |date=October 23, 1986 |title=Paul Simon: African Odyssey |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/paul-simon-african-odyssey-104029/ |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |access-date=April 29, 2020 |archive-date=August 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220802131846/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/paul-simon-african-odyssey-104029/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

Ronstadt eventually tired of playing arenas.<ref>{{cite web| title=Goldmine, #589, February 21, 2003| work=Home at Last: The Journey of Linda Ronstadt| first=Bill| last=DeYoung| url=http://www.ronstadt-linda.com/gold03.htm| accessdate=July 31, 2008| archive-date=September 24, 2015| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924092043/http://www.ronstadt-linda.com/gold03.htm| url-status=live}}</ref> She had ceased to feel that arenas, where people milled around smoking marijuana cigarettes and drinking beer, were "appropriate places for music". She wanted "angels in the architecture"{{snds}}a reference to a lyric in the Paul Simon song "[[You Can Call Me Al]]" from ''Graceland''. (Ronstadt sang harmony with Simon on a different ''Graceland'' track, "[[Under African Skies]]". The second verse's lyrics pay tribute to Ronstadt: "Take this child, Lord, from Tucson, Arizona.&nbsp;..."). Ronstadt has said she wants to sing in places similar to the [[theatre of ancient Greece]], where the attention is focused on the stage and the performer.<ref name="angels">{{Cite web |last=Boone |first=M. |date=July 18, 2007 |title=Great Musicians and Their Legions of Paying Fans Deserve a Great Venue |url=http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=3d66e8e0-b5c8-4106-a56b-95d023c067c3 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071015160703/http://canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=3d66e8e0-b5c8-4106-a56b-95d023c067c3 |archive-date=October 15, 2007 |access-date=July 20, 2007 |website=Gazette (Montreal)}}</ref>

Ronstadt's recording output in the 1980s proved to be just as commercially and critically successful as her 1970s recordings. Between 1983 and 1990, Ronstadt scored six additional platinum albums; two are triple platinum (each with over three million U.S. copies sold); one has been certified double platinum (over two million copies sold), and one has earned additional certification as a Gold (over 500,000 U.S. copies sold) double-disc album.<ref name="certifications" />