Lizzo: The Special 2our
8pm, Monday, April 24th
Fedex Forum
$47+
What praises could be said of Lizzo that hasn’t already been said? She’s a four time Grammy winner, Emmy winner, Soul Train Music Award winner, Billboard Music Award winner and a BET Award winner. Oh yea, and she also holds a Guinness World Record. But if for some reason these accolades aren’t enough to convince you to see her live, let’s talk about her special guest Latto. The Atlanta rapper has been making waves for a while now, culminating last year with her critically acclaimed album 777. The project generated hits like “Lottery,” “Sunshine,” and “Big Energy” which saw a remix with Mariah Carey. Grab your tickets before they sell out because getting to see these two powerhouses in one night? In the words of Lizzo, it’s about damn time.-KK
A city with as much feisty spirit as Memphis seems tailor-made for a towering personality like Lizzo, the Houston-raised rapper, singer, classically-trained flautist, and beloved firebrand of the
2020s hip-hop landscape. Not content to merely play the brash upstart, Melissa Jefferson pours twice as much soul and lived experience into her music as she does her fine-tuned theatrically
and biting wit. It’s easy to champion an artist who devilishly revels in inciting frail white American outrage (see: daring to play James Madison’s custom crystal flute…and to twerk while doing so,
scandalizing Fox News viewers the nation over). But there’s more substance than there even is style to Lizzo’s art – she’s dextrous with wordplay, imaginative in her arrangements, and has the
guts to not only give voice to insightful observations and satire, but to craft a catchy framework and addictive wink-and-nudge sensibility around the whole works. It’s not hyperbole at this point:
Lizzo’s one of the most dynamic and compelling artists of any genre working right now. Someone should design her a crystal flute of her very own already.-ZC
John Mellencamp
8PM, Tuesday, April 25th
The Orpheum
$50+
Back in the distant past of the early-mid 1980s, there were plenty of folks willing to dismiss John Mellencamp, formerly Johnny Cougar, a Midwestern heartthrob churning out hit after hit in a
style some wrote off as a clutch of watered-down Springsteenisms. From the vantage of 2023, though, such a notion seems almost quaint. Mellencamp’s still around, of course, having fully
grown into his legacy years and continuing to distinguish himself as a crucial voice in the vernacular of Americana-focused songwriting. He’s never been Springsteen’s acolyte, of course,
and has instead become one of The Boss’s inimitable peers, still underrated by a few but cherished by many more who’ve stuck by him through the years. It’s a good thing that Mellencamp is such a generous performer; he’s always willing to give back just as much, if not more, as his fans have given him. Who could’ve known, back in the Johnny Cougar days, that he’d one day become the heartland’s poet laureate? The songs were always there, you just had to listen.
Jill Scott
7:30pm, Wednesday April 26th
The Orpheum
$50+
Back in the beginning of 2020, Jill Scott launched a tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of her debut album, Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1. But like everything in 2020, Covid put the much anticipated tour on hold. Now, three years later, Scott is resuming the tour and bringing her show to Memphis’ Orpheum theater. What’s so cool about this tour (besides the obvious fact of getting to see a legend like Scott) is that she will perform all 18 tracks from the debut album. Yes, all 18 – including career-defining hits like “A Long Walk,” “The Way,” and “He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat).” So while the tour may have been delayed, it sounds like it’ll be well worth the wait. Get your tickets to the intimate night now.
