En Vogue Celebrates 30th Anniversary at Billboard Music Awards
En Vogue closed the 2020 Billboard Music Awards with their 90’s hit, “Free Your Mind,” with some updated lyrics.
The current group of Terry Ellis, Cyndi Herron, and Rhonda Bennett started their song off with Ellis asking, “We are in a state of emergency, wrote a song about it, like to hear it? Here you go.” Host Kelly Clarkson, who rocked with the group and Salt N Pepa at the 2018 BBMAs, aptly stated that the song is “just as relevant now as it was then.” During the performance, words flashed behind the group as they performed their flawless choreography, such as “bigotry,” “systemic racism,” and “inequality.” Footage of protests to police brutality also played. A masked, all-female band accompanied the singers. At the end of the performance, they wrapped up the anthem against sexism and bigotry fittingly with the Black Power salute. The only thing missing was the applause; the whole award show had taken place in the empty Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
The group’s debut, Born To Sing, has been reissued to commemorate its 30th anniversary. “Free Your Mind” was the third single off the group’s second album, Funky Divas, released in March 1992. The chorus, “Free your mind, and the rest will follow. Be color blind, don’t be so shallow,” is a powerful message, as America is in the biggest civil rights movement of the century.
Fans watching at home loved the performance and showed their appreciation on Twitter.
Why yes, I DID stop everything I was doing to go watch @EnVogueMusic perform “Free Your Mind” on the #BBMAs. I’ve always loved them and that song, and they absolutely slayed it tonight.
— Adron Buske (@AdronBuske) October 15, 2020
@EnVogueMusic rocked the Billboard Awards I mean they were awesome! Musically and vocally seriously tight, conscious and entertaining!
— Hermon Maclin (@hmac411) October 15, 2020
This performance showed the amazing talent that En Vogue has and relays an important message of equality throughout the night. We can’t wait to see what else the group has in store for future projects and performances.
