Jennifer Hudson delivered a striking performance of the aria “Nessun Dorma” at We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert.
Joined by the New York Philharmonic, the Respect star belted the Giacomo Puccini opera tune to an audience of 60,000 people in Central Park. It was notably the same classical piece Aretha Franklin had performed at the Grammys in 1998.
On August 19th, Franklin performed the track as an encore at a special show at The Apollo in New York City. The concert came days after the release of the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect, which she currently stars in as the Queen of Soul.
Hudson’s performance at We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert is just one of many. The evening’s star-studded lineup includes Paul Simon, The Killers, Polo G, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Journey, Wyclef Jean, Kane Brown, Jennifer Hudson, Cynthia Erivo, Elvis Costello, LL Cool J, Jon Batiste, Andrea Bocelli, Earth, Wind & Fire, Lucky Daye, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, Barry Manilow, the New York Philharmonic, and Carlos Santana, who will be reuniting onstage with Rob Thomas.
In a press conference on July 27th, Mayor Bill de Blasio, music industry executive Clive Davis, and Live Nation and NYCEDC chair Danny Meyer announced the lineup at Central Parks Great Lawn. The announcement for the show, which de Blasio claimed would be “one of the greatest Central Park concerts in history,” came alongside a tweet from de Blasio requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination would be necessary to attend the concert.
To create “an all-time New York state of mind,” Davis told Rolling Stone that he “wanted every genre of music represented, so I reached out to artists across rock, rap, pop, Broadway, classical music.”
VIDEOS
Los Angeles-based designer and recent-ish hip-hop producer Real Bad Man is taking up after Boldy James' prolific work ethic. He is rolling out the red carpet for his next collaborative project with the Detroit spitter titled Conversational Pieces.
Per a press release, the duo will be releasing their third body of work on May 2 via the producer's namesake record label. This will be a follow-up to 2022's Killing Nothing, as well as their debut back in 2020, Real Bad Boldy. The latter also happened to be Bad Man's first LP. As per usual, the tracklist is going to be tight knit.
There's going to be a total of 13 songs and three features. One of them is Conway the Machine, and the other two are a part of the lead singles to Conversational Pieces. Real Bad Man and Boldy James have decided to recruit Washington D.C. artist dreamcastmoe and Run The Jewels' El-P for "Come Back Around" and "It Factor," respectively.
Overall, the vibe we are getting from both tracks is very much "conversational. From the fairly chill production from Bad Man to James' very matter-of-fact deliveries on both cuts, they are definitely following the blueprint they laid out for themselves. See what they are hitting for with the links below.
Quotable Lyrics From "Come Back Around":
Uncle love to smoke and drink, granny on the couch slumped
Needle hanging out her arm, shoot up at least twice a day
Kids damn near starving, cooking noodles in the microwave
Where peoplе slave and don't ever gеt a job promotion
Auntie working two jobs every day but she be closet smoking
Where n****s sick and tired of being tired of hoping
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