Tuesday, May 14, 2024. Brooklyn Chophouse, Manhattan, New York— “Mona Scott-Young, Live Nation and Monami Productions hosts The Queens of R&B Tour Myx & Mingle with Special Guests Xscape and SWV at the Brooklyn Chophouse, Manhattan New York.”
Doors opened at 7:00 pm to an exclusive invitation extended to media press outlets, radio hosts and producers, photographers, journalists and more to the first of its kind, The Queens of R&B Tour Myx and Mingle to promote a 30-city, nationwide tour, beginning in July, 2024.
Entrepreneuress and Media Maven, Mona Scott-Young, the visionary behind the iconic Romance, Musical, Drama TV reality series, “Love & Hip-Hop,” is taking her expertise in production to an unfathomable level. Mona Scott-Young along with LiveNation and Monami Entertainment, will be producing one of the most highly anticipated tours in the history of Rhythm & Blues music by presenting The Queens of R&B Tour, headlining the ladies of Xscape and SWV. This once-in-a-lifetime tour will kick start July 16th at the Lakewood amphitheater in Atlanta, GA. The blended headline tour will also feature performances from the unforgettable group, Total, the eternally ageless Mya, and another all-time R&B fan fave, 702.
The two groups hosted a memorable evening of what felt like homegirl hanging out with an extension of friends and family. The group took photos on the red carpet and spoke candidly with various press outlets all while mingling with fans, enjoying delicious hors d oeuvres of rock shrimp, savory chicken satay skewers, tender peking duck slices in mini bao buns and customized cocktails: ‘The Queen Cocktail’, made of Gray Goose vodka, blended lychees, coconut cream and fresh lime juice; the ‘Just Kickin’ It’, a blend of homemade Patron Silver infused with jalapenos, fresh watermelon juice, fresh lime juice, with tajin spice on the rim; and the ‘Weak In The Knees’, a Hennessy based cocktail with fresh lemon juice and triple sec.
“This Queens of R&B tour is something that’s long overdue. We just gotta thank Mona Scott! Without Mona, we wouldn’t be here today.” Tiny Harris of Xscape shared with the guest who exploded into a long held applause, “She was adamant about getting Xscape and SWV together and I told her, it wasn’t gonna work. But here we are, thank you Mona!” The crowd erupted in laughter as she tactfully hinted towards the challenges they’ve overcome to bring the vision of the tour into fruition. Tiny also expressed her growing excitement as a fan to witness the collaborating groups, Total, 702 and Mya perform in July, as she’d never had the opportunity to see their live performances.
Lelee Lyons, of SWV, continued on to express her gratitude for Mona and called for an encore for her diligence in making this tour a reality…
“Give a round of applause to Ms. Mona Scott-Young, she is the reason, definitely, for all this coming together and we love you Mona Scott-Young! We want this tour to not only be a performance space, but we want this to be an experience for everybody. This is the tour we thought nobody thought would happen, and that’s why it’s so important and that’s why it’s so special. We love everybody and we want to do this for the culture, and we want to do it right this time.”
Kandi Burress of Xscape added, “You said it best ladies, thank you Mona, you know obviously, you were the brains behind this whole situation and for years we were friends and fell out over something dumb on a tv show. I think it’s so important that as women and that as friends, we can sit down, talk things through, even when you don’t see eye to eye sometimes, and figure out, ‘how to make it work’,” Kandi turns to Lelee and says, “and like you said, we’re doing this for the culture. So many people have sampled our songs, which is a blessing. Now to be able to get 702, Mya and Total…SWV and Xscape together to do a show that you won’t be able to see again, ever again. Because we are intertwining our hits together. This isn’t a normal show, SWV and Xscape are coming together as one, hits, back to back and it’s going to be awesome and we can’t wait to share that with everyone.”
Kandi closed by thanking everyone for coming out before she passed the mic to Tamika Scott of Xscape who gleefully added, “Everybody say with me ‘Ticketmaster.com’ and ‘LiveNation.com’” she continues with her call and response, “Now everybody say, “Queens of R&B!” Then she gracefully passes the microphone to Taj of SWV who exclaimed, “What can I say, ya’ll said it all!” After the laughter quieted, she then expressed her love for each and everyone of the ladies, adding that she missed them and looked forward to touring with the ladies of SWV and Xscape, being on the road again, seeing the other acts perform along side of them and creating fond memories over spades. This of course sparking a light hearted banter about card playing strategies between the ladies.
As one of the most highly anticipated shows of its time, the Queens of R&B Tour will center around two of the 90’s R&B most influential girl groups, simultaneously blending their classics hits, sparking nostalgia and chronologically unfolding musical memories tucked away in young love, unrequited crushes, secret romances and all the feels that come with ‘just kickin’ with our favorite bops from way back when. “90’s Music never dies,” Mona stated in her most recent interview on Fox 5 Atlanta, “because its the soundtrack of our lives through its love songs, break up songs and memorable songs [that its listeners associate their lives with].” With a strong emphasis on its relevance amongst newly emerging artists who have sampled and even covered songs from both SWV and Xscape; Mona believes in the success of this tour and is elated to see that the ladies are aware of “…just how incredibly important they’ve [SWV and Xscape] have been to the culture [of music] because even to this day they are all incredibly relevant in music and in everything that they represent.”
Other guest in attendance, like Krista B, Digital Producer of WBLS radio expressed her excitement about the tour because,”Its a display of female empowerment. The fact that our favorite girl groups will all grace the stage together, setting their differences aside to give fans what they’ve been asking for, for many years is huge!”
Mona also shared in a recent interview that the tour will cover 30 cities nationwide; and made us privy to a follow up tour with Missy Elliott and Busta Rhymes; with special guests Ciara and Timbaland; that tour will be presented at State Farm Arena on July 27 and 28th; just on the heels of the ‘Queens of R&B Tour’ Xscape and SWV along with 702, Mya and Total at the Lakewood amphitheater kicking off, July 16.
On a personal note, and as a lifelong R&B Music fan, this tour is a dream come true and much needed ray of hope after years of discord, differences and animosities in the entertainment industry; civil upsets in our social sectors, economic hardships of millions, and political tension in our world as a whole. Music has a way of lifting a community and teleporting its listeners to a gentler times in our lives. Music gives us hope and reminds us of what matters most, which is, but not limited to, creating beautiful moments and memories for ourselves and those we love. Both Xscape and SWV’s catalog has a way of reminding us of how sweet, how chill and how smooth life can be. My only regret this evening is not having had met the fabulous Coko of SWV who has a prior press engagement to attend. I am otherwise, ecstatic, like so many other SWV and Xscape fans, to see a monumentous display of their sisterhood, womanhood, humility, talent and grace by these two legendary groups coming together, on stage, in July for the Queens of R&B Tour.
To purchase tickets for the up and coming Queens of R&B tour, or to see when (or if) the one in a lifetime tour will be coming to a city near you, visit Ticketmaster.com or LiveNation.com and search for ‘Queens of R&B’.