Anita Baker And Babyface Announce 2023 Concert Tour + New Music

It’s one of the top matchups of R&B legend: Anita Baker and Babyface together, on tour. Plus, Baker has said new music is coming in 2023.

The duo announced the tour just before Thanksgiving 2022. They kick off the tour in Hollywood, Florida on February 11, 2023, coming to Chicago near the end of June and ending in Oakland on December 23, 2023. At least 15 dates are listed in the LiveNation website with details of the tour.

It’s difficult to understate the importance of Baker bringing new music to the scene, which she alluded to on her Twitter account. She is a certified hit maker and a certified music seller. She has eight Grammy Awards, some 13 million certified albums in the United States, including three multi-platinum albums. She has five number one hits on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay, 7 top ten hits on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary, four number one spots for Billboard’s top albums R&B/Hip hop albums list and 13 top ten hits on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.

In early 2021 the Detroit soul singer asked fans not to buy or stream her music. During that time, she explained how she outlived her music contracts and wanted her masters back. Looking back before then, and perhaps related to the masters issue, she had also initially announced a retirement from music in 2018. And this was after she took action against people who used her image and likeness on t-shirts and then sold those t-shirts on Instagram. But clearly she has been planning this slow burn return for some time. The “Sweet Love” singer in 2019 played a five-show residency, as part of her Farewell Concert Series, at the Venetian Theater in Las Vegas. Not long after that, also in 2019, she announced she had signed a deal with Rhino Records after a longtime fight with former label Elektra. Per her tweets, the issue surrounded control of her master recordings.

On Feb 14, 2022, an EP named Sweet Love was released on streaming services, serving five of her fan fav hits: “Giving You The Best That I Got,” “You Bring Me Joy,” “Good Love,” and “Body and Soul.” On Spotify, two of the top five slots for popularity of Baker albums streamed include the new EP (distributed by Warner Music Group, which owns Rhino Records), which would indicate fans took seriously Baker’s advice to go ahead and stream the music now.

Baker, perhaps best known for 1986’s sultry, “quiet storm” album Rapture, has an intense fan base eager for the return of more traditional R&B. The pairing with Babyface, arguably one of the top 10 genius songwriters of the modern R&B age, quite possibly has the potential to bring the quiet storm format back to its 90s-level popularity. For context, the tickets to the Las Vegas show apparently sold out in ten minutes. The queue for the South Florida show was over 1,000 in line in the first half hour of sales.

And Babyface also has similar bonafides as Baker with 11 Grammys and 49 nominations for the same. As a producer and/or writer he has scored hits for artists including Madonna, Usher, Michael Jackson and Beyonce. As a performer, his 1989 album Tender Lover is a top ten hit for R&B fans.

This concert will deliver top tier musicianship and loads of nostalgia.

Here is the complete listing of tour stops.

Feb. 11 – Hollywood, Fl

Feb. 14 – Atlanta, GA

Feb. 17 – New Orleans

May 10 – Newark, NJ

May 12 – Long Island, NY

May 14 – Baltimore, MD

June 30 – Chicago

July 2 – Detroit

Nov. 18 – Greensboro, NC

Nov. 22- Memphis, TN

Nov. 24 – Atlantic City, NJ

Dec. 15 – Houston

Dec. 17 – Dallas

Dec. 22 – Los Angeles

Dec. 23 – Oakland, Ca