D’Angelo wowed TV audiences with his performance at the BET Awards and did the same at this week’s Essence Music Festival. Clad in all-black attire, including a black guitar, the crooner performed several songs during his set including several new singles.
D’Angelo was at the height of his powers during his 70-minute Essence set, showing the crowd, the critics, the fans, the curious and the doubtful that he has barely lost an ounce of his swagger during all the years when he reportedly stayed away from the public, got fat, had a few run-ins with the law, and tried to get over his sudden vault into sex symbol super stardom—a place he never sought and certainly never got used to. He ran through some of the biggest songs of his stellar career, this time adding his new virtuoso talents on the guitar, a skill he picked up during his extensive layoff—showing that like his contemporary Lauryn Hill (with whom he recorded the memorable “Nothing Even Matters”), who also learned how to play guitar, D picked up new musical skills along the way.
He also performed his signature “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” to a swooning crowd. According to one writer, he wasn’t too eager about that one number. “The all-black clad D’Angelo sat at the keys and ran through a subdued verse as the ecstatic crowd sang along,” wrote Rebecca Thomas of MTV. “He seemed eager to get it over with, the song perhaps too much of a reminder of a time when he buckled under the weight of sex symboldom, disappearing for nearly a decade into a haze of addiction and personal demons.”
After Essence, D’Angelo is set to go on tour with R&B queen Mary J. Blige, who is excited to see what will happen with the tour. “I felt like it would be refreshing and fun for people to see him and Mary J. Blige on the road together,” she said to Rolling Stone.
