Ravinia 2023 Issue 2

MOTOWN RECORDS (NE-YO) PAVILION 7:00 PM FRIDAY, JULY 7, 2023 MARIO † –Intermission– NE-YO † † Ravinia debut NE-YO A three-time Grammy winner from 14 nomi- nations so far in his career that includes more than 20 million albums sold, Ne-Yo began performing while growing up in Las Vegas. Though recordings of his own didn’t materi- alize from the early work, a track Ne-Yo co- wrote, “That Girl,” soon became the debut single for Marques Houston in 2003. He con- tinued to contribute writing for a wide variety of artists, but a little over a year later, his work on the Mario smash hit “Let Me Love You” catapulted him into the mainstream. Ne-Yo finally made his own recording debut in 2006 with In My Own Words , which quickly shot to platinum sales and the top slots on both the Billboard 200 and top R&B/hip-hop al- bum charts, bolstered by the popularity of the globally top-five (and Billboard number-one) hit “So Sick.” Keeping up his reputation as a go-to hitmaker, Ne-Yo had a hand in several more of that year’s top hits from other artists, including co-writing Rihanna’s “Unfaithful” and Beyoncé’s breakup anthem “Irreplace- able.” Ne-Yo’s second album, Because of You , emerged in 2007 and similarly topped the charts with its upbeat title track. In between that set and his third straight platinum al- bum, 2008’s Year of the Gentleman —backed by two top-10 hits in “Closer” and “Miss Independent”—Ne-Yo extended his streak of songwriting successes as well with con- tributions to Rihanna’s number-one “Take a Bow” and Jennifer Hudson’s “Spotlight,” also guesting on Rihanna’s “Hate That I Love You.” After 2010’s Libra Scale , Ne-Yo’s guest appear- ances on Pitbull’s “Give Me Everything” and Calvin Harris’s “Let’s Go” anticipated his own next top-10 hit, “Let Me Love You (Until You Learn to Love Yourself)” off 2012’s R.E.D. Following his sixth straight top-10 album, 2015’s Non-Fiction , Ne-Yo added a perfor- mance as the Tin Man in The Wiz Live! to his acting credits that include the films Save the Last Dance 2 , Battle: Los Angeles , Stomp the Yard , and George Lucas’s Red Tails , and most recently the TV series World of Dance and Step Up: High Water . Ne-Yo’s latest album, Self-Explanatory , was released last summer with his recent singles “U 2 Luv” featuring Jeremih and “What If ” with guest vocals by Curtis “Sauce” Wilson. Ne-Yo is making his Ravinia debut. MARIO Music veteran and Grammy-nominated sensation Mario grew up singing in church and was discovered and signed to a record- ing contract with Clive Davis’s J Records at the age of 11. He won two Billboard Music Awards in 2005 for his single “Let Me Love You,” which spent nine weeks at the top of the charts. Co-written by his friend Ne-Yo, the song also earned a Grammy nomination for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance; the parent album, Mario’s sophomore collec- tion Turning Point , was similarly up for the Best Contemporary R&B Album Grammy Award. During his first stretch of studio al- bums— Mario (2002); Turning Point (2004); Go (2007), featuring the gold single “Crying Out for Me”; and D.N.A. (2009), featuring the platinum single “Break Up” with guest vocals from Sean Garrett and Gucci Mane, which hit number two on Billboard ’s R&B/ Hip-Hop Songs chart and number 14 on the Hot 100—Mario cemented standing as a jack of all trades by also landing several roles as an actor, including star turns in the films Step Up (2006) and Freedom Writers (2007). More recently, he appeared in the TV broadcast of the musical Rent: Live and joined the cast of the hit television show Empire as Devon for its final two seasons, 2018–2020. Meanwhile, the accomplished singer-songwriter, actor, dancer and model has been rediscovering himself as a creative and learning to translate who he is and who he is becoming through music, dropping his latest releases on his New Citizen record label. Sporadically releasing singles after D.N.A. , including “Somebody Else” with Nicky Minaj in 2013, Mario re- turned with the album Dancing Shadows in 2018 and most recently the EP Closer to Mars (2020), featuring the singles “Mars” and “Pretty Mouth Magick” and accompanying music videos directed by Mario himself. Cur- rently working on his sixth album, the Mary- land native jumped into 2022 fresh off the success of his hit single “Get Back” featuring Chris Brown and released “Main One” with guest Tory Lanez. This February he released “Used to Me” featuring Ty Dolla $ign. Mario is making his Ravinia debut. HEAVY lifting to us. Leave the Wintrust chair & table RENTAL RESERVE LAWN chairs and tables when you order tickets by clicking “ADD-ON.” Wintrust Chair & Table Rental, managed by the Ravinia Women’s Board, supports Ravinia and its Reach Teach Play music education and engagement programs. For more information, visit Ravinia.org /ChairRental RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 3 – JULY 16, 2023 24