“Dallas, it’s so good to be home,” said Erykah Badu on Sunday, cheerfully addressing the arena full of people who had gathered to hear selections from her idiosyncratic, timeless catalog — and receive a little wisdom from one of the city’s hometown heroes.
The show was Badu’s first as a headliner at American Airlines Center, an improbable milestone given that the singer-songwriter’s last appearance on a Billboard singles chart came over a decade ago. Yet the hordes of Dallasites in attendance at the finale of her 25-city “Unfollow Me” tour spanned generations and never lost enthusiasm over the nearly two hours she spent onstage.
The evening’s music started with an exhilarating set from formerly Dallas-based musician Frank Moka, who moved between salsa, samba and Afrobeat. A dose of Brooklyn hip-hop then came from Yasiin Bey, who performed in a custom Dallas Stars jersey and spent much of his set scattering fresh rose petals around the stage and dancing for the crowd.
A little before 10 p.m., Badu’s band established an almost 10-minute groove before the singer herself took the stage in majestic garb that she would strip off and add onto over the course of her set. She teased out a spacey take on “20 Feet Tall,” off her most recent studio album New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh). She then played a drum machine that remained by her side throughout the show and landed on the iconic opening groove to “On & On” off her seminal 1997 debut Baduizm — a fitting introduction to the career-spanning show.
“Unfollow me, I’m lost too,” she said before covering “To Each His Own (That’s My Philosophy),” a 1975 single by the trio Faith, Hope & Charity. “You can’t go where I’m going. I can’t give you all of my magic, but I can introduce you to yours.”
She gave plenty of magic over her set, blending album cuts into singles that had the arena singing along and introducing one surprise after another. The arrangements were filled with improvisation and unexpected twists, but she kept the show’s tone conversational and intimate — a joke about her children’s fathers invited the audience into her inner circle.
At one point, the 52-year-old flaunted some African-inspired choreography and, during a percussion breakdown, deftly played what looked like a West African talking drum. At another point, she sat with a guitar in her lap, crooning “A.D. 2000″ — “You won’t be naming no buildings after me” — while footage of buildings being built and destroyed played behind her. Her jazz bona fides came through on “Time’s A Wastin’” and an expansive version of “Orange Moon,” both of which showcased her vocal dexterity and power.
The only drawback to the show was that Badu’s artful projected backdrop took up all of the stage’s screen space. The singer-songwriter herself only appeared on the screens for a few moments at the end of the set, which may have made it more difficult for those sitting closer to the arena’s rafters to see the range of her expression.
Over the course of the concert, the audience got plenty of Dallas — from Frank Moka’s spoken homage to RL’s Blues Palace to Badu’s many shoutouts to South Dallas (today, she lives near White Rock Lake). Her mother, Queenie, was in attendance, and Badu nodded to her children.
“I’m five generations Dallas,” Badu said, before talking about how important that legacy was to her. She did a roll call, asking those born in different decades to cheer by way of testament to her own reach. The screams of those who had been born long since Badu first made the leap from Booker T. Washington High School onto the global stage proved just how wide that reach has become.
Toward the end of her set, Badu paid tribute to Dallas musician Daniel Jones, whose death at 41 spurred mourning last week. She led the crowd in collectively saying his name. “We love you,” she said. “Travel safe.”
The show’s conclusion was similarly cathartic. After leading joyous sing-alongs to “Bag Lady” and “Tyrone,” Badu exhorted everyone to participate in a collective, primal scream. “Whatever you brought in here tonight that you don’t want to take with you, leave it here,” she said. “You’re not gonna leave here feeling bad.”
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