D’Angelo to Headline Aruba Festival in May
The ever-reclusive D’Angelo will make a rare onstage appearance this Memorial Day weekend when he headlines the Soul Beach Music Festival at the Nikky Beach Amphitheatre in Aruba on May 25th.
Crooner Ne-Yo is also set to appear, closing out the main stage festivities with a performance on May 26th. The festival will open with a night of funk and comedy on May 24th with Sinbad, Paige Bryan and Memphis Red and the Funk Stank Nasty Band.
100 Best Albums of the 2000s: D’Angelo, ‘Voodoo’
After a short string of European club dates, D’Angelo played his first U.S. gig in nearly 12 years last summer when he made a surprise cameo at Bonnaroo for a super-jam with Questlove and company, while a few weeks later he wowed the crowd at the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans.
According to Questlove, the singer is also reportedly 99 percent done with his perennially anticipated follow-up to his 2000’s classic Voodoo. “I would not be far off by saying this is probably my generation’s version of Sly [and the Family Stone’s] There’s a Riot Goin’ On,” the drummer told Billboard. “It’s potent. It’s funky. It’s an extremely hard pill to swallow.”
That interview took place at the end of January, with Questlove adding that he hoped D’Angelo would turn in the album sometime in February. Still no word though on a possible release date, or whether the album’s actually been turned in yet.