On Wednesday, May 28, the 36-year-old Cleveland native led a sold-out show at Echo Lounge & Music Hall for his You Gon Grow, Too! Tour. Bernarr has deep ties in Dallas as a former background singer for the hometown hero Erykah Badu and rotating vocalist for the one-of-kind band RC & The Gritz, and the crowd showered him with love and affection as if he was a native of the city.
The mere sight of Bernarr’s name on the stage's background screen after his opener concluded their set sent the crowd into a frenzy. A video montage of his life began on the screen displaying Bernarr’s evolution from a microphone-holding infant with his parents holding him to a piano-playing toddler. Next were images of his childhood church choir days that led into his teenage YouTube days. The YouTube videos with him singing Kanye West’s “Flashing Lights” and cameos of pre-Dreamville songstress Ari Lennox brought on additional screams and notes from the crowd stating, “That’s who I remember.”
From YouTube, the video transitions to him entering into the music business and tour images as a Badu background singer and nods to his collaborations with artists like The Internet and Kaytranada. The video concludes with his many viral moments like his NPR Tiny Desk and with a clip of him on stage proclaiming, “You better not call me a vibe, bitch. Baby, a vibe is incense. A vibe is them cheap ass LED lights you put on the corner so your ceiling will create a mood. I am an experience.”
Durand’s well-watered musical roots are where we can attribute his confidence in providing such a colorful and fulfilling performance. His mother is a vocal coach who molded his immaculate voice, and his father is an audio engineer who has ensured quality-sounding albums for artists like Whitney Houston, Beyoncé, Jay Z and many more. According to his website, “By the age of 16, Durand’s innate talent had already led him to work as a production assistant for Earth, Wind & Fire, a formative experience that laid the foundation for his future career.”
Sashaying and dancing across the stage to the upbeat tunes, Durand was ready to provide the perfect experience, and it’s evident that he has so much fun with his career. He stood on stage and provided a brief intro of his career since his last tour two years ago. As the crowd went wild, complete with hand claps and fan pops, his way of approaching his messages gave a personal aspect as if he was speaking directly to everybody in the room individually. The engagement and interactions explain exactly why he refers to himself as “your favorite cousin on your daddy’s side” because he is an artist who makes everyone in the room feel like family. The first section of this performance was dedicated to Durand’s visual EP En Route which was nominated for Best Progressive R&B Album at the 2025 Grammys. Before beginning his performance of the single “Fist Bump,” we hear a story of how his causal dress of brown overalls and a white tank top was his plan B outfit, setting up the perfect story of a lady hugging him while in his initial customized cream jumpsuit that snatched in his waist but was ruined by an excited fan’s makeup providing a deeper visualization of the song lyrics, “Got you on a fist bump / Even a smooch on the cheek but I can't give you no hug / My shirt gonna be riddled with makeup.”
As we moved past the dance-style records sung on the modern mics, there was a vintage microphone evidently exclusively used for the ballad-style and slower tracks. He transitioned to belting out the heavy bass track “Unknown” under the spotlight.
There was a brief intermission where YouTube star Terrell Grice, host of the digital variety show The Terrell Show, appeared on screen to provide a video compilation of times when Durand “stressed me out” during his multiple appearances. It was as if the crowd was home in front of their laptops viewing these videos for the millionth time, there was not one parody sung or unintentional joke uttered that was not recited word for word by the audience.
After the intermission, Durand appears on stage in a burgundy choir robe and begins with a test of the cultural classic clap-filled a cappella “No Music” and professes that he is now the choir director. Standing in front of his branded laptop, stating that he was getting into his '90s house roots, the venue turned into a fellowship hall of electronic dance from his joint project with Charlie Vettuno entitled Charlie Vettuno Presents… Where in the World is Carmen Randiego?!
As Durand mixed between DJing and dancing, he then quizzed the crowd by playing songs from his previous projects including a compilation of his duet with Ari Lennox “Stuck” mixed with the classic '80s track “Computer Love” as well as his collaboration “Freefall” with Kaytranada.
Durand Bernarr is a Grammy-nominated artist, earning his first-ever nod for En Route this year, which was up for Best Progressive R&B Album.
Jamisha Daniels
Next, he entered the choir director bag and guided the audience through a compilation of Beyoncé’s "Green Light" mixed with Michael Jackson’s "Remember the Time." He guided each section through their parts of Beyoncé’s chorus chanting, “Go! Go! Go!” The section was therapy to a music lover and fed the heart just like a Sunday service.
After that set concluded, Durand appeared in a brown trench coat that later revealed a blue flowing jumpsuit. We learned about the meaning behind his February album, Bloom. Durand professed that we overlook the platonic love displayed by the community and chosen family acquired through life’s journey. “It’s a love letter to my friends that have become my family. I wanted to decenter romantic love because we always talk about that. We don’t talk about our support system; we don’t talk about our tribe,” he says.
He dedicated this part to learning about healing, therapy and growing into your full potential. Before singing “Flounce,” he spoke about seeing his tribe as a garden and provided perfect metaphors on how each person is a type of flower in an elaborate floral arrangement that he waters. “I look at the people in my life as this very lush, vast garden that I have the pleasure and the honor to have access to,” he says.
There were so many moments of turning to your neighbor for a message, one of which stated, “Turn to your neighbor and say the trauma is not your fault, but the healing is your responsibility.” Every gem that was dropped provided a better introspective point, and it was clear that Durand was working on himself. He wants to make sure that every fan is left with a sense of self and a step towards working to better themselves.
A Durand Bernarr show aims to metaphorically water you by speaking life into every person in the building and motivating them to be their best selves and find the proper soil that nourishes them to bloom into their most beautiful form. “Do you know that grown means something that has reached its full potential?” Durand says as he encourages the crowd to be gentle with themselves.
Anyone as animated and evolved as Durand Bernarr is worthy of every upcoming accolade that falls into his lap. May his career continue to bloom and grow into the most beautiful bouquet of ballads and music that makes you bounce we have ever seen.
