GAMES: GameSpot: Best of 2008 | GameFAQs | SportsGamer MUSIC: Last.fm | MP3.com MOVIES: Metacritic | Movietome TV: TV.com
Print Email Comment Tag It Facebook Digg this
Essence fest returns to Nawlins
By Jim Welte - MP3.com
October 24, 2006 at 08:28:00 AM | more stories by this author

Urban music festival forced to relocate to Houston by Hurricane Katrina will return to the Big Easy for at least the next three years.

The wrath of Hurricane Katrina still hovers over New Orleans, but the city's vibrant culture is rebuilding.

Jamie Foxx at the 2006 Essence festival. Jamie Foxx at the 2006 Essence festival.

That effort got a shot in the arm today when Essence Communications said that its annual Essence Music Festival was returning to New Orleans after Katrina forced it to relocate to Houston. The city signed a three-year deal to host the event, outbidding Houston, which tried to keep the festival.

The annual Fourth of July weekend event is known for a mix of hip-hop, R&B, and soul performances. Its artists roster in recent years has included Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige, LL Cool J, Alicia Keys, Jamie Foxx, and Erykah Badu.

"New Orleans is just the obvious choice. It is just the perfect city with phenomenal venues," said Michelle Ebanks, president of Essence Communications, which publishes Essence magazine and owns the festival. "It's also important for the festival to participate in the rebirth of this city."

Essence started the event in New Orleans in 1995 to celebrate the magazine's 25th anniversary.

Next year's festival will be held July 5, 6, and 7. Tickets go on sale November 3. The lineup of performers has not yet been announced.

Print Email Comment Tag It Facebook Digg this

Back to Today's News »

4 Comments

Oldest First | Newest First
jolynncreson
been looking for this stuff long time
Posted 05/24/2009 8:59pm
bertieforge
this site is one of the best
Posted 05/23/2009 2:26am
PapaTazzz
That's cool!!!
Posted 03/01/2007 6:28pm
ClaudeLv250
About time.
Posted 10/24/2006 4:31pm
Sign up now to post a comment!

Latest News

MP3 players for audiobook addicts MP3 players for audiobook addicts
Five top MP3 players that are compatible with audio books.

Picture Galleries

Related Artists

Jamie Foxx Jamie Foxx

A major star on television (In Living Color, The Jamie Foxx Show), the big screen (Any Given Sunday, Collateral, Ray), and radio (his second album, Unpredictable, went platinum), Jamie Foxx -- born Eric Morlon Bishop, Jr., in Terrell, TX -- started out as a comedian and went through years of gradually escalating notoriety before winning an Oscar...

Stevie Wonder Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder is a much-beloved American icon and an indisputable genius not only of R&B but popular music in general. Blind virtually since birth, Wonder's heightened awareness of sound helped him create vibrant, colorful music teeming with life and ambition. Nearly everything he recorded bore the stamp of his sunny, joyous positivity; even...

Aretha Franklin Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin is one of the giants of soul music, and indeed of American pop as a whole. More than any other performer, she epitomized soul at its most gospel-charged. Her astonishing run of late-'60s hits with Atlantic Records -- "Respect," "I Never Loved a Man," "Chain of Fools," "Baby I Love You," "I Say a Little Prayer," "Think," "The...

Lauryn Hill Lauryn Hill

Call Lauryn Hill the mother of hip-hop invention; with her 1998 solo debut The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, the Fugees' most vocal member not only established herself as creative force on her own, but also broke new ground by successfully integrating rap, soul, reggae, and R&B into her own sound.

Raised in South Orange, NJ, Hill...

Mary J. Blige Mary J. Blige

When her debut album, What's the 411?, hit the street in 1992, critics and fans alike were floored by its powerful combination of modern R&B with an edgy rap sound that glanced off of the pain and grit of Mary J. Blige's Yonkers, NY, childhood. Called alternately the new Chaka Khan or new Aretha Franklin, Blige had little in common stylistically...

Related Albums

Jamie Foxx "Unpredictable"
Jamie Foxx
When Jamie Foxx released his first album in 1994, he was a star on In Living Color with a decent-sized following who declared, "No, really, he can sing -- he's alright!" A decade later, Foxx was a major movie star who had impressed Clive Davis enough to be offered a new recording deal. Though he didn't release any albums during the intervening...
Stevie Wonder "A Time to Love"
Stevie Wonder
During times of extreme political and social change, Stevie Wonder's voice and songwriting served as cultural and spiritual guideposts to many a listener, often lending insight and a barometer with which to measure the ways of the world. But that was largely during the golden phase of his career, generally regarded as being the late '60s through...
"Collections"
Aretha Franklin
Lauryn Hill "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill"
Lauryn Hill
Though the Fugees had been wildly successful, and Lauryn Hill had been widely recognized as a key to their popularity, few were prepared for her stunning debut. The social heart of the group and its most talented performer, she tailored The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill not as a crossover record but as a collection of overtly personal and...
Mary J. Blige "The Breakthrough"
Mary J. Blige

Tags

add
Be the first to tag !
Data Warehouse Clear Gif