With Memorable Verizon Big Pay Off Chicago Performance, Melanie Fiona Proves She’s One of Generations Best Performers!

Melanie Fiona

Verizon Wireless proved they are more than just a wireless company with the amazing show they put on Friday May 29, 2015 at the historic Harold Washington Cultural Center on the South Side of Chicago. With performances from Melanie Fiona, Chicago’s very own K.M. tha Original and Omen, the event was not only performances from the artists, but meet and greets provided by them as well before the show.

Dubbed as the Verizon Wireless “Big Pay Off City” Sessions, this was the Chicago stop of a small five-city tour put on by Verizon for Grammy Award winning artist Melanie Fiona to play some of her older material, as well as preview new music from her upcoming new album, Awake.

With different opening acts in each city of the tour, Verizon wanted to show the Potential Of Us in each city that the artists have to show off their talents through each show. They did that too with the amazing performances put on by K.M. tha Original, who I never had heard of before the show. An emcee, who is more than that, but just a greet artist, K.M. put on one heck of a show and besides dope tracks like So Chicago, where he’s putting on for the city and his more hood type records like his single, Why Is That, with fellow buzzing Chicago emcee Lil Herb, he showed his versatility with records like Waiting Forever and Better Late Than Never. Even being one of the opening acts of the night, K.M., had one of the highlights of the night when he brought out fellow Chicago native Raven to perform their very amazing and smooth single, Waiting Forever. A record that I was really feeling a lot and wanted me to really check out more of both these artists music.

Chicago emcee/producer Omen of J. Cole’s Dreamville Records was the other opening act before Melanie came on. Omen though I had heard of him, I never really checked out any of his music. I’m glad I was able to see his performance though and see how he’s not only a great emcee with how he moved and controlled the crowd during his performance, but how he showed off his very amazing storytelling abilities in a few of the tracks he performed as well. One of the records he performed that really caught my attention a lot is one that spoke about him growing up without his actual biological father in his life and how a lot of athlete’s, artists and other entertainers tend to grow up with just their mom or one of their parent’s in their lives, rather than both parents. Some of the music he previewed off his upcoming debut album, Elephant Eyes really had me wanting to finally stop delaying and to actually start checking out some of his music now too.

The real highlight of the night though and what most came to see is Melanie Fiona perform. The two-time Grammy Award winning singer/songwriter opened with two of her most noteworthy singles so for in her career with It Kills Me and Give It To Me Right. Donning a dress with a hat dress jacket, Melanie got so in to her performance that halfway through her set she even joked about stripping with how she got rid of her hat and jacket during the performance. Ms. Fiona also went into full artist mode in front of the mic and really started singing her heart out to show why she’s one of my favorite performers and artists right now when she performed, Wrong Side Of A Love Song. A song dedicated to the wrong that goes on for women in certain relationships that she said she knows a lot of women can relate to. One of my other favorite parts of the night, which one of the highlights of the night for me is when Melanie went into what she calls her gangsta alter ego side, Felanie Miona, where she performed her own amazing covers of tracks from artists the likes of Elle Varner, Kendrick Lamar and Nicki Minaj and tracks of their like Don’t Kill My Vibe and Only Wanna Give It to You. The Grammy Award winner even previewed a new song, I Tried, off her upcoming new album, Awake. A very Caribbean influenced strong record, we have come to come to expect from Melanie, which speaks on how she tries to let her self get through a hard time in a relationship where she let her guard down. But she will get through it somehow. A record that everybody really was loving a lot and will probably be looking forward to even more when they hear the full version on the album.

Before closing out the night with a very amazing performance of her latest single, Bite The Bullet, which she dropped just a couple of weeks ago, Melanie closed out very strongly with two of my absolute favorite records from not only her, but probably of all-time with Change The Record and 4 am. On 4 am Melanie really belted the vocals out and showed why she’s without a doubt one of the best performers there’s right now, as well as one of the best vocalists of our time and show by the time her career is over, she will even be recognized as one of the best of all-time. Seeing her perform Change The Record really took me back too cause I seen her perform one of the very first, if not the first time she ever performed it, when she had a listening session/performance for The MF Life back in 2011 at the now closed Funky Buddah Lounge here in Chicago. Overall Ms. Fiona put on one heck of a show as she always does and showed why besides myself, I’m sure many others are looking very forward to her new album, Awake, when it drops later this year. Especially how long she’s taken off in between now and her last album. If you have never seen a performance from Melanie, I highly suggest you do cause she’s easily one of the best performers of our generation and of the three times I’ve seen her live she always puts on such amazing and great life changing performances.