When Erykah Badu announced her latest tour, Unfollow Me, the singer-songwriter shared what fans could expect. “You can expect us to become one living breathing organism. You’ll receive my sincerest, purest love. I love what I do and I love doing it for you.”

The Grammy-winning artist made good on that promise during her Los Angeles stopover at Crypto.com Arena Saturday evening (June 17). 

Already hyped by a fun and memory-evoking opening set by yasiin bey, Badu kept fans on pins and needles as her drummer and percussionist fired up the crowd even further with energetic solo turns. Then, some 10 minutes later, the lady of the hour took the stage to loud cheers and shoutouts amid laser lights and lightning flashes across a giant video screen. But it was worth the wait. 

Opening her show with the fitting, self-empowering “20 Feet Tall,” Badu — wearing a feathered floor-length coat and tall head wrap that she later doffed for a slinky black dress with front-facing slits underneath — took command of the stage for the next hour and 45 minutes. From there the evening became a giant sing-along with an ethereal and playful Badu leading her faithful choir, beginning with the classic “On & On” peppered with humorous adlibs like “People in the back … what the F you looking at?”

After segueing into “…& On,” the Grammy winner dished up a host of flavorful tracks from her deep-rooted catalog, including “Appletree,” “No Love,” “Me,” “Time’s a Wastin,” “Kiss Me on My Neck,” “A.D. 2000,” “Didn’t Cha Know” and closer “Window Seat.” In the latter song, Badu smoothly sidled into a snippet of “Whipped Cream” by Ari Lennox, of whom she noted, “I love you, Ari.” Also eliciting massive sing-alongs that resonated throughout the arena: “Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop),” “Otherside of the Game,” “Next Lifetime” and a very moving “Orange Moon.”

To an audience that ranged from ’60s- to 2000s -era fans, Badu declared of her game-changing 1997 debut album, Baduizm, “I wrote that for you ’90s babies,” as she recalled being pregnant with her first child while writing and recording the project. “So I’ve been waiting for you ’90s babies to grow up,” she said with a laugh.

The evening’s master class in neo-soul and hip-hop — in honor of the latter’s 50th anniversary this year — got off to a grand start with rap icon yasiin bey. The Brooklyn-born artist took the stage to heartwarming applause and shoutouts before delivering a strong 45-minute set. At times self-deprecating (at one point the rapper/singer-songwriter/actor referred to himself simply as “local talent” to audience laughter); at other moments twirling around onstage to his tracks with free abandon, bey referenced milestones in his long-running career as well with songs like “Auditorium,” “Casa Bey,” “Mathematics,” “Ms. Fat Booty” and “UMI Says.”

Adding an exclamation point to bey’s show was the surprise appearance of his former Black Star colleague and fellow Brooklynite Talib Kweli. The two hip-hop icons dove into a rollicking take on their 1998 gem “Respiration.”

Badu’s 25-city Unfollow Me tour with yasiin bey, produced by Outback Presents, launched in San Antonio on June 11 before making its fifth stop in Los Angeles. Upcoming shows include Sacramento (June 20), Seattle (June 23), Denver (June 26), Chicago (July 1), New York (July 8) and Atlanta (July 15) before wrapping in Badu’s hometown of Dallas (July 23). 

Taylor Swift took a minute before singing “Champagne Problems” to take things back a few eras Saturday night (June 17) at Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium.

“The weirdest, most magical thing is happening,” Swift said from the Eras Tour stage. “It’s never happened to me in the whole time I’ve ever been doing this.”

“‘Cruel Summer’ is a song, I just played it a second ago. I don’t know if you remember. We had a blast, yeah? The one with the bridge where we all screamed,” she reminded fans, referring to the opening Lover section of her live set.

“‘Cruel Summer’ was on the Lover album. That album came out four years ago. And I just need to let you know something: ‘Cruel Summer,’ that song was my pride and joy on that album,” she said of the track featured on her 2019 album, a song that also happens to be a longtime fan-favorite.

Swift explained, “You have conversations before the album comes out. Everybody around weighs in on what they think should be singles. I was finally, finally about to have my favorite song become the single — off of Lover.”

But before summer 2020, which would have been a logical time to drop a cathartic summer anthem, came COVID-19. “I’m not trying to blame the global pandemic that we had,” Swift said, “but that is something that happened that stopped ‘Cruel Summer’ from ever being a single.”

She continued, “No one understands how this is happening, but you guys have streamed ‘Cruel Summer’ so much right now in 2023” that Republic Records, her label, “just decided to make it the next single.”

Billboard confirmed the news on Friday that Republic will officially start promoting “Cruel Summer” to pop radio stations as of Tuesday, June 20, while continuing to promote Midnights single “Karma.”

“Cruel Summer” returned to the Billboard Hot 100 dated June 3, after it spent two weeks on the chart in September 2019. On the June 17 Hot 100, it ranks at No. 47, with 9.6 million official streams, 2.6 million radio airplay audience impressions and 1,500 downloads sold in the United States June 2-8, according to Luminate.

“Thank you to anyone who’s been listening to that song like 500 times a day,” Swift joked in Pittsburgh.

Take That‘s Howard Donald, who was scheduled to perform as a solo artist at Groovebox’s Nottingham Pride Festival in July, has been removed from the fest’s lineup. The move came on Saturday (June 17), when Donald apologized for “liking social media posts that are derogatory towards the LGBTQIA+ community.”

“In light of recent events, Howard Donald will no longer be playing at our Nottingham Pride Festival on Saturday 29th July at Binks Yard. We would like to offer our thanks to the public for alerting us to the situation this morning and also appreciate your patience whilst we spoke to the relevant parties,” Groovebox wrote in a statement published on Saturday, after telling festivalgoers earlier in the day that the organization was dealing with a “a situation that’s evolving, in relation to an artist on our Nottingham Pride line-up.”

“I have made a huge error in my judgement liking social media posts that are derogatory towards the LGBTQIA+ community and for that, I am deeply sorry and I know I have let everyone down,” Donald wrote in an Instagram Story on Saturday (June 17).

Donald added, “I am really disappointed in myself and I am sorry for any hurt that I have caused by my uneducated actions. I clearly have a lot to learn and it’s a priority for me that I do this.”

Donald’s Twitter account has been deleted as of press time, but screenshots of transphobic and homophobic tweets that he allegedly liked were shared among other media outlets and on social media.

Nottingham Pride is working on confirming a replacement headliner to take Donald’s spot. Horse Meat Disco, Tayce, Danny Beard and ESSEL remain on the event’s lineup.

Take That currently consists of Donald as well as Gary Barlow and Mark Owen, though Jason Orange and Robbie Williams originally rounded out the group. The English boy band took the U.K. and the rest of Europe by storm, but only had one hit in the U.S., 1995’s “Back for Good,” which peaked at No. 7 on the Hot 100 songs chart.