Lauryn Hill broke her silence on her latest delayed performance with a lengthy social media statement thanking the Essence Festival organizers for taking responsibility. In her statement, the singer and rapper also clarified “misconceptions” about her approach to live productions and referenced “years of public efforts to defame me.”
Last week, Hill took the stage during the first night of the 2025 Essence culture festival nearly two hours late, performing around 2:30 a.m. on July 5 to an “essentially empty” Caesars Superdome, according to Nola.com . On Monday, July 7, Essence Fest released a statement accepting responsibility for the delay.
Now, Hill has thanked festival organizers for “clarifying that the delays were not my fault” and detailed her hands-on approach to live performances. “Family, let me address a few things: I am involved in every aspect of what it takes to do my shows because it requires a lot of involvement to protect the integrity of my message and the quality of what I do,” she began.
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She continued, “I rehearse and organize music diligently with my band. I’m involved in every aspect of the design, preparation, and production of my shows, as well as being a father, grandfather, and steward of my family and immediate community.”
Hill added that while “some focus on a single discipline or category, my role requires me to have eyes everywhere and contribute to most, if not all, departments and more.” However, she does all of this “without complaint, because it is truly a labor of love and great passion for me to be able to perform meaningful music for my audience.”
She then addressed a “misconception” about her history of lateness. “There seems to be a misconception out there that I’m somewhere on the Riviera with my feet up, drink in hand, showing up at concerts whenever I can because I’m too important to care,” she wrote. “This is nonsense… and anyone who’s part of these productions knows that, in fact, the opposite is true.”
“This isn’t the first time production delays have delayed my performances,” Hill admitted. “However, it is the first time a promoter has acknowledged their own slip-up (thanks, Essence!), and this will be the last time I allow production challenges to appear as if the fault is mine alone, when it isn’t.”
Hill then said he was “okay” with those who “can no longer extend me grace” because “it is the grace of God that sustains me and the love of the fans who appreciate that my message came to them when they needed it most and know that I was probably punished for being so honest in the middle of big business.”
“The media, fact-checking, and watch what you’ve put out there irresponsibly—there are consequences for misrepresenting the facts,” she concluded. “Despite the late start, I appreciate those who stayed and rocked with us.”
Despite this explanation, Hill has a long history of arriving late to concerts. In 2005, fellow FUGEES member Wyclof Jean complained to PEOPLE about her being 45 to 50 minutes late to the stage during the group’s reunion tour. Two years later, her performance at the Nice Jazz Festival was delayed by 90 minutes.
She was also over two hours late for a concert in Atlanta in 2016. Addressing her lateness in a subsequent social media post, she explained that it was due to her “perfectionist tendencies” and added that she was “aligning [her] energy with the time.”
Most recently, Hill arrived on stage late during several shows on her 2023 Miseducation of Lauryn Hill 25th Anniversary Tour.
