The Essence Music Festival returns to the Louisiana Superdome July 2-4 with Janet Jackson headlining its opening night. Today Essence announced its night-by-night lineup, which is as follows: Friday, July 2: Main stage: Janet Jackson, Charlie Wilson, Raphael Saadiq, Monica. Superlounges: Chrisette Michele, Irma Thomas, Arrested Development, Big Sam’s Funky Nation, Mary Mary, Irvin Mayfield [...]
Tag Archives: essence music festival
Janet Jackson to Essence Fest
March 30, 2010 – 7:00 am
Janet Jackson will join Mary J. Blige and Alicia Keys as a headliner at the 2010 Essence Music Festival the July 4 weekend. Essence was the first magazine to feature Jackson on its cover, and her appearance at its festival will be her only North American concert appearance in 2010. Jackson joins a lineup that [...]
Alicia Keys and More Added to Essence Music Festival Lineup
February 23, 2010 – 12:29 pm
The Essence Music Festival continued to beef up this year’s lineup of stars, adding singer/pianist Alicia Keys as a headliner at the Independence Day weekend festival. Keys released her fourth studio album this past December, riding on the success of her guest turn on the Jay-Z hit, Empire State of Mind. Keys was not the [...]
Earth, Wind and Fire Among Names Added to Essence Lineup
February 11, 2010 – 12:20 pm
Mary J. Blige has already been announced at the headliner and spokesperson for the Essence Music Festival, which takes place July 2, 3 and 4 at the Louisiana Superdome. Today Earth, Wind and Fire was added to the schedule along with Gladys Knight, Keri Hilson, Jill Scott, Raphael Saadiq, Charlie Wilson, De La Soul, Chrisette Michele, [...]
Gabriel Roth of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
July 1, 2009 – 12:01 am
When Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings play one of the Superlounges on the Friday of Essence Music Festival, it will be their third show in New Orleans in a year—unusual for a non-local act, particularly one on the verge of major prominence. They’re also possibly the first non-local act to play all three major festivals—Voodoo, [...]
Where’s Maxwell?
June 29, 2009 – 8:22 am
In Sunday’s New York Times, Jon Pareles profiles Maxwell, who’ll headline the Essence Music Festival Saturday on the main stage. In the piece, he writes about Maxwell’s almost 8-year-long sabbatical from his career: Hod David, the guitarist who has been Maxwell’s collaborator since the early 1990s and who produced the new album with him, [...]
Essence’s Changing of the Guard
June 1, 2009 – 12:01 am
In early 2008, Stephen Rehage received a surprising message. “I randomly got an email asking if I could go to the Essence offices for a meeting. I did, and that’s where it all started,” says Rehage, the head of concert promotion company Rehage Entertainment. That meeting was where Essence Communications told him of its decision [...]
Essence Festival Day-by-Day
March 27, 2009 – 6:23 am
Here’s the day by day lineup for the Essence Music Festival, which takes place in the Superdome over the July 4 weekend. Little on the main stage speaks to me, but there’s a lot of fairly interesting music in the superlounges. Friday, July 3: Main stage: Beyoncé, John Legend, Ne-Yo, Salt N Pepa, DJ Soul [...]
NO on TV
December 2, 2008 – 6:48 am
Tonight at 8 p.m. CST, VH1 Soul (Channel 362 on Cox Cable) presents a new episode of Soul Cities with Nelson George, this time featuring New Orleans. The segment was filmed during the Essence Music Festival weekend and features Terrence Blanchard, Kermit Ruffins, DJ Soul Sister, Irma Thomas, Lil Wayne and Raheem DeVaughn (not from [...]
Re-Funked
July 1, 2008 – 12:01 am
When you think of the Essence Music Festival, you think of Frankie Beverly and Maze. Stevie, Aretha, Beyoncé, Chaka Khan and Prince have played it, but Maze embodies its values down to the electric slide. Like Earth, Wind and Fire, which played the festival in 2006, Maze embraces traditional notions of musical accomplishment—they’ve got chops—and [...]
