Erykah Badu News

Queen Latifah stars in 'The Little Mermaid Live!' and she gives us a little taste of what's in store with her performance as the villain Ursula.

Queen Latifah talks about receiving an award at Harvard, and her road to becoming an A-list actress.

Sariyah Idan is an American songwriter, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist whose soul and jazz influenced expressions have come to fruition in her first full-length album, Breaking Shadows . An accomplished artist and arts educator, whose experience began singing ensemble world folk music as a child, dancing professionally and studying poetry and jazz music, Sariyah possesses a profound sense of story alongside a keen understanding of music's sensual strength and the emotional space a voice can occupy.

The Gasparilla Music Festival (GMF) has released a limited number of discounted 'early bird' tickets on sale for its 9thinstallment taking place March 7-8, 2020, in Tampa. Two day general admission tickets are available for only $40 and two day VIP tickets for $175. The tickets are available on-line (www.gmftickets.com) on Thursday, September 26 at 9:00am.

In honor of its 20th anniversary, The Roots' breakthrough fourth album Things Fall Apart is available once again via Geffen/Urban Legends. This melancholy gem of 2000s alternative hip-hop, originally released on MCA Records in 1999, has been freshly remastered and repressed in two lavish physical configurations, a standard black 3LP, a limited-edition crystal-clear 3LP as well as a digital collection, all to be released September 27.

Deadline reports that Queen Latifah will star in upcoming coming-of-age murder mystery 'When The Street Lights Go On.'

The Gasparilla Music Festival (GMF) has officially confirmed its 2020 festival dates.  The 9th annual festival will take place March 7-8, 2020, along Tampa's waterfront with early bird tickets going on sale in September. GMF will feature an eclectic mix of over 45 local and touring bands covering a wide variety of genres and performing on 5 stages in downtown Tampa. GMF 2019 had over 25,000 attendees with a Saturday sellout. Past festival performers have included The Avett Brothers, Gary Clark Jr., Modest Mouse, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Father John Misty, The Flaming Lips, and Cage the Elephant.

The 2019 season of Sunset Concerts at the Skirball comes to a close with producer, lyricist, and trumpeter Josef Leimberg on Thursday, August 22, at 8:00 pm. Novena Carmel of KCRW kicks off the evening with a DJ set at 6:30 pm.

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, WAITRESS will end its Broadway run at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2020. When the show says goodbye to Broadway, it will have played 33 previews and 1544 performances.

UMS's 141st season has been announced!

NYC artist Carol C has released her debut solo album, Seven, today on Si*Sé Records.   

There is a definite relationship between rap and jazz. Musicians improvise with notes. Rappers improvise with words. Many of the great hip-hop recordings featured samples from some of the greatest jazz albums. So it should be no surprise that there are rappers who are not only comfortable in post-bop sonic settings, but can also deliver some swinging verses themselves. The result of this fusion of styles, motifs, and genres is a corps of instrumentalists who are influenced by rappers, who in turn, are influenced by musicians. 

Born in the San Francisco Mission District, for the past two decades BAYONICS has mixed Reggae and Latin music to create a style as unique as the city they call home. Freely melding genres, they carry on the tradition of legendary Bay Area groups such as Santana and Sly & The Family Stone, groups that sought to transcend genre with music that moves people both literally and figuratively. 

Texas singer-songwriter Sarah Jaffe has announced the release of her new companion EPs – This Is Better Part 1 & This Is Better Part 2 – due out July 19th via Kirtland Records. The songs across the two EPs came out of some intense writing sessions with producer and collaborator Aaron Kelley, who Jaffe first connected with to write music for films.  The two clicked and started working on songs together.  Over the weeks that followed Jaffe dug deep, writing songs that helped her deal with the emotions she was processing as a result of a recent heartbreak she was going through.  Originally planning to shop these songs around, Jaffe decided she couldn't part ways and wanted to record them for herself.

On Stage At Kingsborough, a leading performing arts presenter located on the campus of Brooklyn's Kingsborough Community College presents its 2019HOT SUMMER NIGHTS! FREE Outdoor Concert series, featuring concerts under the stars every Saturday at 8:00 p.m.beginning July 6thand ending July 27th.

It feels in many ways poetic that both the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and the 200th anniversary of Walt Whitman's birth fall on the same year. That's precisely where The Bearded Ladies Cabaret comes in. The Philadelphia-based experimental cabaret troupe is part of La MaMa's STONEWALL 50 celebrations, joining a group of LGBTQ+ artists from around the globe. The Beards' contribution is the New York premiere of their CONTRADICT THIS! A BIRTHDAY FUNERAL FOR HEROES, which---spoiler alert---starts as a birthday party for 'much-lauded homo poet' Walt Whitman and descends into a trial, taking on Whitman's problematic political views, our imperfect heroes, and cancel culture as a whole.

Nashville/New York City based harpist Kirsten Agresta Copely released her new solo acoustic The Covers Album for digital distribution today. Comprising of twelve hit singles spanning decades from Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac to Radiohead, Rihanna and Lady Gaga, each track sonically “washes over you like an aural massage,” Nightsongs Music gushes. Ambient, yet true to the original, Copely showcases her versatility and command of modern music while impeccably expressing the wide technical range of the instrument.

Seattle's critically-acclaimed rapper and crooner Dave B shares a new song “Window” featuring Romaro Franceswa from his forthcoming album BLEUavailable on June 7th. On the Sango and WAXROOF produced soulful and bounce-worthy track, Dave B teams with another young Northwest hip-hop artist Romaro Franceswa for an uplifting song about escaping negativity.

Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage opening night is set to take place on Saturday, June 1st at the newly upgraded flagship venue in Central Park. The night will feature New York City native, the soulful R&B singer songwriter Emily King, along with developing artists and deep soul revival band Durand Jones & the Indications, Brooklyn-based singer songwriter Madison McFerrin, and DJ Reborn. The first guests of the night will receive a special limited-edition commemorative giveaways. 

The East Village Playhouse, home of the The CityKids Foundation, is proud to present the return engagement of The Artivist, The Bayard Rustin Story, a solo show that musically explores the life of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin through his speeches, songs, monologues, documentary footage, and letters. The play reopens May 30th and runs through June 23rd, 2019. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 4pm.