Despite her lateness, sound issues and her sons’ prolonged stage time, Hill, together with the band, delivered a good performance.
US singer-songwriter Lauryn Hill is the quintessential genius, as her virtuoso performances often have to contend with her bad habits, like being late.
“I’m savin’ souls and y’all complainin’ ’bout my lateness,” Hill rapped on the song Nobody where Nas features her, which fittingly describes her as an appreciated artist who is bad with time.
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Lauryn Hill’s lateness
Hill was the headline act for the last day of this year’s DSTV Delicious Festival hosted at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in Midrand.
By 6pm, the artificial lawn by the mainstage, where she was set to perform, was already packed, with people trying to find the perfect spot to watch Hill’s performance, set for 6.10pm.
By 6.20pm, the crowd had gotten thicker, as were the clouds of smoke from marijuana consumers elevating their mood for what’s about to come.
By 6.40pm, the audience started to get agitated with Hill’s paucity.
The DJ’s playlist seemed to be running short of current hits, as she went from playing current Amapiano songs to D’banj’s 2012 hit Oliver Twist.
Somewhere between 6.40pm and 6.50pm, Hill’s whole band, which was seemingly also waiting on her, walked off stage.
Now, even the latecomers in the audience were wondering what was happening, while the football fans in the crowd tried to keep track of the Arsenal versus Manchester City Premier League game.
There were some positive signs as the band returned to their stations, the lights dimmed and the excitement in the audience rose.
At precisely 7pm, Hill’s performance began an hour late.
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Lauryn Hill on stage
By the time Hill got on stage, looking ravishing in an all-red Thebe Magugu outfit, all annoyance with her lateness had subsided. The soul-saving session had begun.
Performing versions of hits like Lost Ones and Doo Wop (That Thing) had the audience eating from the palm of her hand.
Unlike Jill Scott last year, whose performance was packed with sultry love songs that resonated with damsels in the audience, Hill’s performance had the grit and bite of an emcee when she rapped, which had the gents respectfully bumping their heads.
She simultaneously had the gentleness to appeal to the women who sang their hearts out to songs like Ex-Factor.
The sound had issues, with Hill repeatedly asking for the monitors to be adjusted. At one point, a camera shot of her drummer went on the big screens, where he looked annoyed with the sound from the monitors.
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Hill presents her sons
At the end of performing To Zion, Hill called out her firstborn son Zion, who the song is named after.
She shares Zion with Rohan Marley and he took to the stage as his mother was catching her breath.
The energy died down during Zion’s performance. His asking of rhetorical questions like “are you listening” or “should I perform another one” were signs of how disconnected he was from most of the crowd.
His younger brother, however, YG Marley, lifted the mood when he performed. YG performed some of his hits that the audience vibed with, including his collaboration with Davido, Awuke.
But it was the performance of his hit song, Praise Jah In The Moonlight, at the end of his set that had the audience singing along.
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Fugees
By the time Wyclef Jean took the stage, the audience seemed tired and eager for the show to end, given it was a Sunday night.
But he uplifted the audience when he performed his hits like 911, Sweetest Girl and Two Wrongs.
He and Hill performed classic Fugees songs like How Many Mics, Ready or Not and Killing Me Softly With His Song.
Hill brought on a choir to perform the latter, where they added isiZulu lyrics to the song, but due to the poor sound quality, the audience couldn’t understand what was happening until the song came to an end.
Despite her lateness, sound issues and her sons’ prolonged stage time, Hill, together with the band, delivered a good performance, displaying why she is seen as a generational talent with a discography filled with memorable hits.
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