Concert review | Lauryn Hill & The Fugees: “Let’s have fun!”

A concert that is reminiscent of a session in the rehearsal room – with a lot of energy, but unfortunately bad sound. By Laurina Schräder

The mix of speakers in the Uber Arena is blurred, distorted – sometimes indefinable. Although there are 13 musicians on stage, the first thing you hear in the evening is the voice of Miss Lauryn Hill. Why not? After all, everyone has waited long enough for the musician to come back to town after her last concerts in the Tempodrom – which most people remember badly.

Son Zion is also there

Hill enters the stage late under a kind of canopy. The fears that had recently been circulating that she might not show up at all had already been dispelled by DJ Reborn, the evening’s support act, with a “The queen is here, she’s really here”. After Hill’s legendary “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, this year’s highlight of the tour is not actually the “Queen’s” solo performance, but that it is officially a joint appearance by the Fugees.

Against the background of a recent lawsuit by rapper Pras Michel against Lauryn Hill, however, there remains a certain skepticism about how the evening will ultimately turn out.

In fact, it is Lauryn Hill’s solo performance that makes up the first part of the evening, and in which she shows off her simply magnificent vocal range and inspires admiration with her energy and presence. The fact that she sings her song “Ex-Factor” in two versions, which alludes to her relationship with Wyclef Jean, and finally brings her son on stage with her song “To Zion”, also clearly brings to mind the Fugees’ split. Among other things, Hill’s decision to keep her baby and not her career is said to have caused the band to break up.

Background music gets stuck in the sound mush

After a short solo intermezzo by Zion Marley and his ode to Grandpa Bob, the tension about which formation the concert will actually end in is finally resolved. When Wyclef Jean enters the stage, he and Hill throw words back and forth – almost like in a rap battle. The audience cheers.

Jean takes the opportunity to involve the audience by repeatedly asking them to turn on their cell phone lights and saying things like “Let’s have fun”. Without Hill, Wyclef Jean is then alone on stage with his hits (including “Maria Maria”, “No Woman, No Cry”, “Guantanamera”), sometimes playing the white electric guitar on his back.

Unfortunately, the music of the musicians acting in the background remains stuck in a mush of sound throughout the concert and the individual instruments rarely reach the ears of the audience in an optimal way – while their music runs through from start to finish in a loop, without any real breaks.

Feeling like in the rehearsal room

The comings and goings of the protagonists ultimately give the feeling that you are watching a session in the rehearsal room. And it doesn’t seem to be the quality that is the focus, but that everyone is having a good time together. So the band, Hill and Jean build up their session for about two hours to an energetic Fugees finale (“Killing Me Softly With His Song”, “Ready Or Not”, “Fu-Gee-La”), which ultimately leaves no questions unanswered about an encore.