has found one of the more innovative solutions with her elaborate “Quarantine Concert Series,” which is streamed live from her home in Dallas.
The at-home vibe extends to the performances — sometimes Badu sings while sitting on her bed, at one point she said she had to take a bathroom break — but there are plenty of memorable musical moments.
I wanted to create a livestreamed interactive experience that had the same integrity, ingenuity, creativity and technical aspects of my live shows, because I had to charge something: This was gonna be pretty expensive to bring in techs and engineers and musicians to my house, and I found out I didn’t have enough broadband — I learned so many things in five days! But I had already committed to putting on a livestream and charging a dollar.
Then I had to clear all of [the publishing and the masters for] my music — and it took until 10 p.m. on the evening of the show. The engineers and techs had been in my house for two days wearing gloves and masks, and they’re all looking at me, wondering what’s going on. So I had to decide at 10 p.m. whether to spend another day of expenses or just bite the bullet and go at midnight — and I made the decision to go. I only promoted it on my platforms for two hours, and all these people [tuned in].