Ordinarily the participants play their songs and chat a bit, while sometimes bringing in a special guest here and there while people watching can offer up their thoughts in the comment section.īut Knight, 77, and LaBelle, 76, showed us why they are legends as they actually sang along to their hits – much to the thrill of those watching not only on Instagram, but also Apple Music and YouTube.Īnd while it’s framed as a “battle,” there was nothing but love between the iconic singers. The events bring together two artists to square off against each other and have become almost required viewing during the pandemic. On Sunday LaBelle and Gladys Knight were the latest artists featured in the Verzuz “battle” on Instagram Live organized by producers Swizz Beatz and Timbaland. ![]() It was a way to give Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight and Dionne Warwick their flowers while they are alive, especially at a moment when so many elders are being taken from us too soon.To quote a famous Patti LaBelle hit “Hey sister, go sister, soul sister, go sister.” "Verzuz" on Sunday allowed the past to speak to the present, allowed us to remember that the generations that came before us fought to make a way for us to thrive. In some Black communities, we often talk about giving people their flowers when they are alive - which means recognizing their work, and telling them you appreciate and love them when they’re alive instead of waiting until they are gone to appreciate them out loud. There’s something about the memories their music evokes for people, especially my age, that can be both a shared experience and yet utterly unique. When my grandmother passed away, I listened to Patti LaBelle, Dionne Warwick and Gladys Knight (along with Aretha Franklin and others) on a playlist whenever I wanted to remember that feeling of being a child in her kitchen nothing else brought those memories back so fast. ![]() I can’t tell you what was on top of the Billboard charts when I was 5 or 7 (or even 11) because even though Patti LaBelle’s and Gladys Knight’s works were technically songs for Gen X’s parents (or very cool grandparents), they also were the first music that many of us heard as kids.Īnd yes, I still associate it with chores - that music playing on a Saturday morning meant it was time to get up and clean - but also with feeling loved, with dancing with the broom, with singing into a ladle, and sitting in the kitchen hearing the stories I wasn’t old enough to hear. ![]() Music weaves itself into our lives: it cements certain moments into our memories, evoking the smells, the feelings and even the flavors that were integral to the first time we heard a given song. Whether it was 1991’s “Superwoman” with all three artists or Patti LaBelle’s “On My Own,” Sunday’s "Verzuz" wasn’t just the sound of an era, it was the soundtrack of my childhood. But for many people, listening to them sing their back catalogues and compare stories brought up so much more than that.įor me, their music stirs up childhood memories of Saturday cleaning and Sunday cooking: I was raised by my grandparents and an aunt, and it was not a weekend unless the radio was on and there were greens to pick or chores to do while the radio played. Of course, the singing was flawless of course, the competition sublime of course, bringing in Dionne Warwick just added to the perfection. Which takes us to Sunday, when all-time greats Patty LaBelle “faced off” against Gladys Knight for the aforementioned bragging rights. Beginning in the early days of the coronavirus quarantine, matches were between current stars, but over time "Verzuz" has evolved - technologically and otherwise - to include the greats of past decades. Whether your knowledge of their discographies started after their hits were made or, like me, you grew up on a steady diet of their songs, you can and should recognize echoes of their work in current hits such as Beyoncé's "Lemonade album, or Chloe x Halle's "Forgive Me."Īnd, if you somehow missed the “Verzuz” phenomenon, basically, two artists perform (or in the case of producers, play) up to 20 songs of their discography and discuss them while streaming on Instagram (and now AppleTV) in a nominal “battle of the bands” - though, really, it’s viewers who win. You missed one of the greatest, possibly defining, cultural events of the pandemic era because you decided Instagram had too many ads and you thought, what, the women who helped define the R&B genre are “old people” music?įirst off, Patti and Gladys - and their surprise guest, Dionne Warwick (who, notably, was Whitney Houston’s cousin) - made some of the most important music in American history. ![]() If you are too offline to know what “Verzuz” is, or too young to understand why everybody has been raving about Patti LaBelle and Gladys Knight on social media this weekend, let me help you out (sort of).
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