Lauryn Hill’s performance at the 2025 Essence Festival ended at four in the morning.
Nola reports that the singer’s set at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans ended at 3:37 AM, after she started around 2:30 AM. The issue seemingly stemmed from a combination of sets running over and her being added to an already long lineup.
By the time she made it to the stage, there were only several hundred people in the crowd in a venue that could seat 83,000 people.
When Hill’s set finally did start, the singer didn’t let the late show stop her from giving an epic performance. Since the show was so late, she was able to talk with fans between sets, even responding to a request to perform “I Gotta Find Peace of Mind” from her 2022 live acoustic album, MTV UNplugged No. 2.0.” “I can do a little snippet. We didn’t rehearse that,” she reportedly said to a fan. Hill also performed songs with her two sons, Zion Marley and Joshua Marley.
She also performed “Tell Him,” seemingly unplanned because she told someone in the audience, “Sister, I was watching you for the lyrics.”
Hill’s late show at Essence Fest wasn’t her fault, but historically the singer has been known for her constant lateness. In 2023, the singer addressed her tardiness during a concert in Los Angeles.
“Yo, y’all lucky I make it on this blood ras stage every night,” Hill told her crowd. “I don’t do it because they let me do it. I do it because I stand here in the name of God and I do it. God is the one who allows me to do it, who surrounded me with family and community when there was no support.”
“When the album sold so many records, and no one showed up and said, ‘Hey, would you like to make another one?’ So I went around the world, and I played the same album over and over and over and over again,” she continued. “Because we are survivors, and we’re not just survivors, we’re thrivers.”
