Lauryn Hill, a little late but worth the wait

Following a long day at the Bluesfest festival at Byron Bay, with jelly legs and yawns, the last thing you would want to anticipate is to wait another half hour for the final artist to turn up on stage.
 
Measuring up to the expectation of “was it worth the wait and the money” will have to be a judgment only you can make, which may be determined by whether or not you’re a real fan.
 

To her defense, it’s not unusual for Lauryn and often other headlining artists to feature a pre-show DJ set for crowd engagement, for that length of time.
 
But some perceived her ‘lateness’ as ‘diva arrogance’, and question the consideration for her fans.
 
There was undoubtedly somewhat audio mis-comms with her band during her set, and the technicalities of those imperfections led her to turn back frequently and direct the band, whilst adjusting to her inner-ear piece.
 
She was clearly frustrated. Why, because Lauryn Hill is a musical perfectionist, why, because you paid a substantial amount of money to see her and she did not want to disappoint.
 
Technicalities may fail her, but her song choice had a deeper message beyond sole entertainment. Evidently, fans shared with us how her music influenced them not to end their lives, and, gave them the motivation to break out of depreciating situations.
 

Looking trendy in her red trucker cap, she gave a revitalised version of her hit songs ‘Ready or Not’, ‘Killing me softly’, and ‘That Thing’, then toned it down with some serenading ballads such as ‘To Zion’ and ‘Ex-Factor’ interspersed with complimenting backing vocals, amongst many more.
 
In regards to the confusion of the geographical location “Brisbane are you ready”, rather than the 150km further out Byron Bay location of the Bluesfest, it was an unfortunate mishap which when she corrected it, the crowd went into a roar of concurrence, which hopefully has now been fully forgiven.
 
To any disappointment, if you were expecting backing dancers or a more commercial set, then that’s not the Lauryn Hill we’ve ever known. She still remains in the high caliber of artists in the RnB/neo soul genre and overall delivered outstanding vocals, and performance.
 
Nevertheless, if you do not agree, her authenticity did not lack, when embracing the moment and overlooking the minor technical flaws, we can appreciate the type of artist she is.
 
If this was the last concert she ever gave, it sure was a privilege to have been there.