Hip-hop group The Fugees have announced they are reuniting for their first live shows in 15 years, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their seminal album, The Score.
The trio – Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel – rose to fame in the 1990s – thanks to hit songs including Fu-Gee-La, Ready Or Not and their cover of Killing Me Softly, all from the album, which topped the Billboard 200 in the US and charted at number two in the UK.
Debuting in the early ’90s as Tranzlator Crew, the group eventually adopted the name Fugees, a shortened riff on “refugees” that referenced cousins Jean and Michel’s shared Haitian-immigrant heritage. Their first album Blunted On Reality was released in 1994, but it was The Score that made them a household name.
Despite only being together for five years and two albums before they split for the first time, The Fugees made a huge impact on hip-hop music in the 1990s and won two Grammy awards for The Score and Killing Me Softly. The Score went on to have estimated sales of more than 22 million worldwide, placing it among the best-selling albums of all time.
Following a break-up amid tensions in the band, all three musicians went on to have solo careers. Jean released his debut album Wyclef Jean Presents The Carnival in 1997, while Hill and Michel followed in 1998, with The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill and Ghetto Supastar respectively.
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The trio reunited for Fugees gigs in 2004 and 2005, but later split again.
Announcing the reunion tour, which will include a UK show in London, Hill said: “The Fugees have a complex but impactful history. I wasn’t even aware the 25th anniversary had arrived until someone brought it to my attention.
“I decided to honour this significant project, its anniversary, and the fans who appreciated the music by creating a peaceful platform where we could unite, perform the music we loved, and set an example of reconciliation for the world.”
“As I celebrate 25 years with The Fugees, my first memory was that we vowed, from the gate, we would not just do music, we would be a movement,” said Jean. We would be a voice for the unheard – and in these challenging times, I am grateful once again, that God has brought us together.”
The Fugees will play a one-off gig in New York on Wednesday before the tour starts in Chicago on 2 November. They will play eight US dates in total before a show in Paris and then at the O2 in London on 6 December. The tour will finish with gigs in Nigeria and Ghana.
The Fugees’ charitable fund also plans to link up with Global Citizen for philanthropic efforts around the tour, the band have said.
The creators of Friends have revealed that parts of the script for the final episode were leaked by an insider ahead of the show airing.
Simply titled The Last One, millions tuned in as the episode brought the hit comedy to a close 20 years ago, on 6 May 2004, finally resolving the decade-long “will they, won’t they?” romance between Ross and Rachel.
Looking back at the final shows in an interview with NBC’s Today show in the US, Friends creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane revealed details of the leak.
“Oh my god, we tried so hard to keep it a secret!” Kauffman said. “We were desperate to keep it a secret and it got out. And it was an inside job.”
Scripts sent out ahead of the premiere of the final episode were numbered, Crane explained.
“We knew how many people knew what it was going to be,” he said. “So it did, through an element of… it became a behind-the-scenes detective show.
“It was frustrating, but at the end of the day, what are you gonna do?”
Part of the script that leaked included the details of Ross and Rachel finally getting back together, Kauffman said.
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But when asked if the mystery of who released the information was solved, she replied with a smile: “Ish.”
“Ish,” Crane repeated.
After 10 series and 236 episodes, as well as Ross and Rachel’s reunion, the final instalment saw Monica and Chandler leaving their famous Manhattan apartment and moving to the suburbs as new parents to adopted twins.
Perry, who died last year, aged 54, wrote about the finale in his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, And The Big Terrible Thing.
“Before that final episode, I’d taken Marta Kauffman to one side,” he wrote. “‘Nobody else will care about this except me’, I said. ‘So may I please have the last line?'”
His character Chandler did indeed have the last line. As the Friends decide to go for one last coffee before the move, he simply asks, “Where?”, in a trademark sarcastic but poignant joke about the fact that so much of their time on screen has been spent in the Central Perk coffee shop.
“It’s incredibly poignant. It’s a legacy for him, one of his many legacies,” Kauffman said.
Friends has found a new generation of fans in recent years after being picked up by streaming sites.
Earlier this year, two scripts for The One With Ross’s Wedding, season four’s famous two-part finale filmed in London, sold at auction for £22,000 after being found in a bin.
The new music venue – which is set to become the largest in the UK when it does open, seating 23,500 people – has said it will now open on 14 May, when British rock band Elbow are scheduled to perform.
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Last week, the venue said it would be taking “a short pause to events… to fully ensure the safety and security of fans and artists visiting the venue”.
American rapper A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie had been cancelled at the last minute the previous day, due to a “technical issue” during a soundcheck.
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What is happening with Co-op Live Arena?
Tim Leiweke, chairman and chief executive of US-based venue operator Oak View Group, apologised for the delays and to “all those that have been affected” and said staff were working “incredibly hard” to get the building ready for 14 May.
“As many of you will know, it’s not been the smooth start we had planned for, and I know that has caused a huge amount of disruption and frustration to thousands of people,” he said.
The issues began following a test event in April which led to Co-op Live announcing it would have to reschedule Kay’s stand-up shows. These were first moved to later dates in April before a second rescheduling to 23 and 24 May.
A gig by The Black Keys has also been moved to 15 May. Rodrigo’s 3 and 4 May dates were postponed, while A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie’s 1 May performance took place three days later, having moved to the city’s AO Arena.
The Eagles, Nicki Minaj, Pet Shop Boys, Liam Gallagher, Pearl Jam, The Killers and Eric Clapton are among the big-name acts scheduled to perform at the venue in the coming months, but so far only a test event by Rick Astley has gone ahead.
The arena’s general manager Gary Roden announced his resignation last month.
A Co-op Group spokesperson previously said: “Co-op is a sponsor and does not own or run the venue, and we have made it clear to Oak View Group, who are responsible for the building, that the impact on ticketholders must be addressed as a priority.
“We are pleased that they will shortly be putting plans in place to do so.”
They added that safety checks would be independently verified so Co-op members and other ticket holders “can be reassured that the venue has the very highest levels of security and safety measures”.
The Met Gala always produces the most memorable red carpet looks of the year.
Following this year’s theme, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, and a Garden Of Time dress code, the stars pulled out all the botanical stops with their outfits, with floral and garden-inspired fashion unsurprisingly dominating.