"Because I am a Queen"

Madison Square Garden, New York City

Thursday, August 13, 2009

I haven't been to a concert in quite a while.....in fact I cannot remember the last show I was at. So when my friend Catharine (of the Baltimore Catharines) sent me a message asking if I wanted to go to the John Legend/India Arie concert at Madison Square Garden I jumped at the chance. Now I am definitely a fan of both these artists (some of you might recognize the title of this entry as India Arie lyrics....some of you may not) but not fanatical or anything. But I have always appreciated their talent and a chance to listen to them and hang out with Catharine is something I just could not turn down.

Maybe you need a little background info. Catharine in my estimation is one of the greatest people ever. I worked with her on Nelson 7 at Johns Hopkins but have actually not seen her since I left Baltimore last May (neither of us could believe it had been more than a year). This reunion was a long time coming!!! Now I credit Catharine with a couple of things. First thing is introducing me to the Latin Palace in Baltimore which as you might guess is the dance club where I first learned to merengue and mildly improved my salsa. The second thing is the idea of cooking the pizza before you head to the club so that when you get home at 2am and you're drunk and hungry.....the pizza is all ready for you to eat. Really helps up out.

India Arie. So pretty. My pictures of her show did not turn out too great but I assure you the music was great.

Anyway, back to the show. What can I say......AMAZING. India Arie in my estimation is one of the most talented and beautiful black women on the planet and she did not disappoint.

"I’m not the average girl from your video
And I ain’t built like a supermodel
But I learned to love myself unconditionally
Because I am a queen" .......a few words I now chose to live by.

She changed outfits a couple times, she put on butterfly wings, she threw off her wig (I am not my Hair is one of the greatest songs ever.... and I quote "I am not my hair, I am not this skin, I am not your expectations") She even high-fived me while getting closer to the crowd to share her music.

Note the perfectly matched butterfly wings. So awesome.

It turns out I know a lot more of her songs that I originally thought and every time she opened her mouth it just blew me away. She end her show with an amazing version of I am Ready for Love. Just amazing......that's all I can say.

I just really love this song.

After a little break it was time for John Legend to take the stage. Now Catharine and I sat in the front row of the second section on the floor so the seats in front of us were like 6 feet away and there was a walk way between us.

Look closely......that is John Legend.

John Legend happened to walk down that walk way and then climbed up on a box equal with the last row of the first section and sang his first song. I must say he is shorter than I thought he was (Debi you would make him look like a small child)......but so much cuter.

So nice of him to take this picture with me.

Yeah......he was that close. So awesome.

Note the girl freaking out next to him. So funny!!!!

Anyway, he was also amazing and really there is not much more I can say about that.......but I will. I also have pictures.

Hanging out with his piano. Love it!!!!

With one of his special guests. Sorry I don't remember his name but he is a dance hall legend from what I understand. The girl next to me (not Catharine) was pretty excited. Other special guests included Estelle and India Arie even came back out for a song.

He had a tribute to MJ......I mean how could you not. Music and entertainment as we know it today would not be what it is if it wasn't for the late great Michael Jackson.

He took off his shirt and jumped up on his piano to sing.

And just when I thought things couldn't get better......Kanye West shows up on the stage, brings out Estelle and along with John Legend the 3 of them proceeded to sing American Boy (a great great song).

"Take me on a trip I'd like to go some day, Take me to New York I'd like to see LA. I really want to, come pick it with, You be my American Boy."

Of course none of my pictures with Kanye turned out and I only got a short video (because I was freaking out at the time) but there is a little bit of evidence that I did in fact see him.

Of course no John Legend show would be complete without hearing Ordinary people but we had to wait until the end of the show at which point Mr. Legend came back out, all on his own and sat down at the piano and made everyone in the audience oh so very happy.

Getting ready to play.

Just a little bit of Ordinary People. So good!!!!!

In summary.......AMAZING.

Me and Catharine after the show. Such a good show and so nice to see a good friend again.

The night was capped off with a very strong cosmo, some great catching up with Catharine and some yummy street meat. What a way to head into the weekend.

Julie