John Legend is making his promotional rounds for his upcoming album, Darkness and Light.
The 37-year-old singer visited The Ellen DeGeneres Show where he performed his new single “Love Me Now.” He also chatted with Ellen about his baby girl Luna, campaigning for Hillary Clinton and his role in the upcoming film La La Land.
Watch John Legend’s performance and interview below.
https://youtu.be/XWhZNFQ_NpE
Sessions @ AOL may have launched in 2002, but its presence was felt more in 2003 as the way we hear and see our favorite artists online started changing at a rapid speed. From the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) going to legal war with individual music file-sharers ( Napster, Wake.Princeton.edu ) to the launch of Apple’s iTunes Music Store, the options for consumers to follow their beloved artists started to become more difficult. But Sessions @ AOL made this easier.
Brought to us by AOL Music, the mini-concert experience became an outlet for artists to perform their past and presents hits in a more up-close and intimate way. Similar to MTV-Unplugged, many artists have sung acoustic and stripped down versions of their popular songs and album gems. Artists even sat down to dish on their latest albums ahead or after its release.
After 10 years of special performances, exclusive interviews and some name changes (AOL Sessions, AOL Music Sessions), the intimate concert series ended abruptly in 2013.
While others (Walmart Soundcheck and Yahoo! Pepsi Smash) have attempted to capture their own exclusive studio performance moments, nothing beats holding the house phone hostage so no uses it so you could use dial-up to watch your faves spill the tea on their album and sing your favorite cut track.
In the spirit of nostalgia, we compiled a list of 20 memorable performances from the online music concert series. (Sidenote: Can you guess how we ranked the list? The answer is at the end)
Mario brought his underrated vocals to Sessions @ AOL to perform his top-20 hit “How Could You” from his Turning Point album.
Following the release of 2010’s No Boys Allowed, the singer-songwriter stormed Sessions to sing cuts off the new album including “Beautiful Mistake.”
Fresh off the release of her album Epiphany, Michele revisited her I Am era with a sensational performance of “Be Ok.” The uptempo number won a Grammy in 2009 for Best Urban/Alternative Performance.
Sporting her signature orange hair and a casual outfit, The Way it Is singer belted her powerful ballad “Love” for online viewers.
While this Rico Love-written track is a duet with Brandy, the New Life vocalist stripped down the record and took it on alone with some help from three backup singers.
There are not many artists who can sit on a stool, sing their hearts out and still be on key. Jennifer Hudson is one of them. She delivered a stellar performance of “I Remember Me,” the title track of her 2011 album.
Tyrese accepted an Open Invitation to AOL Sessions in 2012 where he performed his soulful tune “Stay.” The song spent 11 consecutive weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult R&B Songs chart.
The then-Murder Inc front-women was on point with all aww babies for her first time at Sessions. And catch how Ashanti barely opened her eyes during this performance of “Rock wit U (Awww Baby).” We love a dizzy queen.
The First Lady had viewers in their feelings with “I Love You” from her 2001 album Faithfully. Did you peep Meelah, lead singer of 702, singing backup?
The sultry tone diva came to Sessions to promote material from her Libra album. She also revisited The Heat era and sung “He Wasn’t Man Enough” alongside her sisters Trina and Tamar Braxton.
Donning a black dress with silver shoulder embroidery, the Back to Me singer left it all on stage with her mind-blowing performance of “Bittersweet.” She reprised the emotionally charged ballad with more personal lyrics.
The Radio Killa paid a visit to AOL Sessions in 2013 to promote IV Play. While there, the versatile musician dropped the auto-tune and bared his natural singing voice for his wavy performance of “I Luv Your Girl” off his debut album, Love Hate.
The singer-songwriter had us “So Sick” with his first-ever AOL Music Sessions visit. The heartbreak song topped several Billboard charts including the Hot 100 for two consecutive weeks.
The young Breezy had girls all over the world screaming at their computer screens with his performance of “Winner” off his self-titled album.
Brian McKnight was one of the first R&B artists to grace the AOL studio. He performed his classic song “Back at One” from his 1999 album under the same name.
Supported by a full band, the legendary group got us out our seats to dance along to “The Way You Move” from their 2005 Illumination album.
Ms. Kelly invited rapper Eve to perform their fierce collaboration “Like This.” Hopefully, no one hurt themselves trying to reenact this dance number.
Seated behind his instrument of choice, Legend had us levitating as he wonderfully sung “So High” from his debut album, Get Lifted.
Alicia Keys rarely steps from behind her piano to perform music. But she did for the majority of her 2010 Sessions to perform past and present tunes including “Unthinkable (I’m Ready)” from The Element of Freedom.
It was all or nothing at all with the Queen of the Hip Hop Soul’s moving performance of “Take Me As I Am” from The Breakthrough.
The Unapologetic artist starred on the Sessions for three album eras: A Girl Like Me, Good Girl Gone Bad and Rated R. Her amazing performance of “Unfaithful” in 2007 is a standout though.
Although she was there to promote B’Day and its singles (“Irreplaceable”), it was Yoncé’s breathing performance of “Me, Myself and I” alongside her incredible background singers The Mamas that stole the show.
Give up yet? The list of performances was ranked by the artists’ number of Grammy nominations. Beyoncé has the most (63) nods out of all the artists featured on this list while Mario and Keri Hilson have the least (2).
R&B veteran Peabo Bryson paid a visit to Capitol Records to perform a 1 Mic, 1 Take of his chart-climbing single, “Love Like Yours and Mine.”
In the black and white video, Bryson filled the studio B booth with his ageless vocals and delivered a breathtaking performance of the passionate ballad.
“Love Like Yours and Mine” is the lead single from Bryson’s upcoming release, Stand for Love, which is slated to arrive on August 3 via Perspective Records / Caroline.
The album was crafted jointly by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. “This project started with trust,” Bryson exclusively told Rated R&B. “There’s probably not more than two other people on this planet I would have trusted with this [album] for me than Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. I knew it was the right thing to do. We set challenges for each other and those challenges were met and superseded in ways that you can only dream about. Their process was a wonderful thing for me … how involved they want you as an artist to be. They aren’t trying to make you into a cookie-cutter image or a projection of themselves. They want you to be you.”
If you can’t get enough of Bryson’s 1 Mic, 1 Take, catch him on tour this summer. His next stop will be in Los Angeles on July 20 at the Microsoft Theater.
Before PJ Morton wraps up his More Gumbo Tour overseas, he visited NPR’s office for its Tiny Desk Concert series.
Supported by a 10-piece string section and background vocalists (The Amours), Morton stirred and served up three towering tracks from his Grammy-nominated Gumbo album including “Claustrophobic,” “Go Thru Your Phone,” and “First Began.” The latter tune was nominated for Best R&B Song at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.
Morton shared the inspiration for his song “Claustrophobic,” before performing it for the Tiny Desk crowd.
“So many people didn’t want me to be myself,” he said. “But I decided I was going to be PJ no matter what people told me and tried to get me to do.”
In March, Morton released an amazing live version of his Gumbo album.
Watch PJ Morton’s Tiny Desk performances below.
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