Brandy to perform a 2 hour concert with a live orchestra *Wig gone*

Brandy to perform a 2 hour concert with a live orchestra (NSO Pops: an evening with Brandy) | Random J Pop

Brandy may not be making the waves she made back in 1998, but she's still doing her thing. Ever since her come 'n' go, quickly forgotten about album Two eleven, Brandy has been doing TV shows and has enjoyed a stint on Broadway, most notably as Roxy Hart in Chicago - which made her one of the first black co-leads in the history of its run. But Brandy's latest venture is a very special and unique one, as she will be performing at the Kennedy centre concert hall with a live orchestra.

Hearing Brandy signing? That tone?! Backed by an orchestra?! Tell the coroner to call it. BECAUSE I AM DEAD.

NSO Pops is a special crossover event that's held once every year or so to connect the world of R&B to that of a classical symphony. I think it's great that there is some form of event and an institution that acknowledges the connection, because it's a very real one. R&B has always had ties to classical and symphonic music. Many of R&B's top producers were classically trained and you can hear the influence of that in their work. From the likes of Babyface, Brian Kennedy and Rodney 'Darkchild' Jerkins, all of whom are notable for the inclusion of orchestral and symphonic elements into R&B; something that was pioneered by the likes of Quincy Jones. And it's no coincidence that Brandy has worked with all of the aforementioned producers over the course of her career.

Brandy will be performing some of the famous numbers that she'd performed during her Broadway run, but the focus will of course be her own material. Many of Brandy's song featured live strings, so it's not hard to imagine how the likes of "The boy is mine", "Have you ever", "Nothing" and "Long distance" would sound. Her set is 2 hours long, so Brandy has enough time to squeeze in the hits, the fan favourite deep cuts and the obscures. She will also be performing covers of Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder and Sam Cooke.

Songs I would love to hear live and orchestrated would most definitely have to be "Almost doesn't count", "It's not worth it", "Who is she 2 U", "I tried", "True" and as much as I can't stand Coonye West, I would love to hear "Talk about our love" too. I can imagine it sounding gorgeous re-arranged with just strings.

With me not living in the US, I can't attend this. But for those of you who are Brandy fans or connoisseurs of good music checking this blog out from Washington DC or neighbouring States, there are still tickets available from the official Kennedy centre website.

Brandy will be performing on Friday, January 25th and Saturday, January 26th. I will suspend my playing of Resident evil to to trawl Instagram and be knee deep in that Brandy hashtag looking for videos.

I really do hope this entire gig is professionally filmed and put up on YouTube.

Buy tickets & find out more: NSO Pops: An evening with Brandy

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