Ravinia 2024 Issue 5

PAVILION 7:30 PM SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 2024 TLC and SHAGGY † Shaggy –Intermission– TLC † Ravinia debut SHAGGY Born Orville Richard Burrell and raised in Kings- ton, Jamaica, Shaggy got his start as an MC in New York City’s burgeoning dancehall scene soon after moving to Brooklyn in his teens. Not long after serving four years in the US Marines (including two tours of duty in the Middle East as part of Operation Desert Storm), he inked his first record deal and quickly scored a global cross- over smash with “Oh Carolina.” As the only RIAA Diamond-selling dancehall artist in music histo- ry, Shaggy has sold more than 40 million album units to date, in addition to landing eight singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and seven albums on the Billboard 200 (including four in the top 40). He has received two Grammy Awards and is among the top three streamed reggae artists of all time on Spotify. Not only a pioneering reggae and dancehall icon, multi-award-winning songwriter, and hitmaker, Shaggy has long used his platform to strengthen his community and homeland. In 2009, he established the Shaggy Make a Difference Foundation and organized the first of many Shaggy & Friends benefit concerts, which to date have raised millions for the Bustamante Children’s Hospital, the Caribbean’s only English-speaking children’s hospital, located in Kingston. “I always try to bring the fun when I’m performing, and keep everything very lightheart- ed and joyous,” says Shaggy. “I think my purpose and my job is to bring joy to as many people as I can, and I want that to resonate within all of the music that I create.” Shaggy is making his Ravinia debut. TLC Combining contemporary R&B and hip-hop with lithe dance-pop, TLC became one of the best-selling “girl groups” of all time with three multiplatinum albums during the 1990s, includ- ing the only diamond album by a girl group in American recording history. The trio of Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, and Ro- zonda “Chilli” Thomas came together as TLC in 1991 and made their first recorded appearance that year as backing vocalists on the track “Reb- el (With a Cause)” on labelmate Jermaine Jack- son’s album You Said , remaining in the studio with producer Dallas Austin to craft its new jack swing–influenced debut disc, 1992’s Ooooooo- hhh… On the TLC Tip . The provocative lead sin- gle “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg” and its accompanying music video established the trio’s quirky and col- orful dress sense, and the group’s next two sin- gles, “Baby-Baby-Baby” and “What About Your Friends,” both hit the top 10 like “Ain’t 2 Proud.” After a tour opening for MC Hammer and re- cording the theme song for Nickelodeon’s sketch comedy show All That , TLC reentered the studio to create its landmark 1994 disc, CrazySexyCool , featuring the number-one hits “Waterfalls” and “Creep,” the latter winning the trio the Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group to complement their win for Best R&B Album. The music video for “Waterfalls” was an MTV staple for several months, making TLC the first black artist to win the network’s Video Music Award for Video of the Year. Subsequently, TLC was named Artist of the Year at the 1996 Billboard Music Awards. The group spent the next couple years renegotiating their contracts, and in 1999 TLC returned with FanMail , which featured an- other pair of seminal, number-one hits in “No Scrubs” and “Unpretty.” “No Scrubs” earned the trio another two Grammys to accompany an- other Best R&B Album win. Work had begun on a fourth album at the time of Lopes’s tragic death in 2002; Watkins, Thomas, and Austin completed the disc, 3D , later that year. Ten years after a hits compilation, TLC announced plans for a new, eponymous album, which became the fastest-funded pop project in Kickstarter history en route to its summer 2017 release, led by the single “Way Back” featuring Snoop Dogg. TLC previously appeared at Ravinia in 2017. RAVINIAMAGAZINE • AUGUST 19 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2024 84