So, No Badu Birthday Bash This Year?

For all of Dallas’ positives, such as fertile soil for business startups, a growing coffee scene and representation in each of the “Big Four” professional leagues, there are two things that the city indisputably lacks: tradition and star power.

Sure, the St. Patty’s Day parade down Greenville is fun, but that’s not wholly our thing. As for stars, it seems like every contemporary North Texas celebrity (Post Malone, Nick Jonas) makes it once they leave us.

But there’s an exception to every rule, and we’ve been lucky enough to have Erykah Badu be ours. For nearly 10 years, Badu has thrown an annual birthday bash, a party way more elaborate than it ever needed to be, at the Factory in Deep Ellum, a venue way too small for her draw.

When it comes to pomp and circumstance in the Big D, there’s no greater place to be than in that packed room on a cold February night. Over the years, the show’s musical lineup has featured many influential stars, from Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) and Raekwon of Wu Tang Clan to Dave Chappelle. The show also has a particular knack for showcasing budding stars years before their breakthrough, with sets from a young Thundercat, Leon Bridges and Tobe Nwigwe.

Last year’s show was a spectacle. It was branded as “Level 53 – Final Boss” complete with Street Fighter imagery onstage and accompanying T-shirts. Opened by producer extraordinaire The Alchemist, Badu performed the hits, “On And On” and “Bag Lady,” namely, matched with a selection of deeper cuts from 2010’s New Amerykah Part Two: Return Of The Ankh including “Umm Hmm” and “Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long.”

An encore brought out Thundercat and Teezo Touchdown as surprise guests, followed by a presentation from the Deep Ellum Foundation, awarding Badu with the first-ever key to Deep Ellum.

But this year, it appears Forbes’ greatest R&B singer of all time won’t be using that key at all. Her 54th birthday came and went on Wednesday, Feb. 26, without any mention of a celebration.

Badu tends to operate unpredictably, so we’re holding out hope for a surprise announcement in the coming days. In years past, she’s announced the birthday bash with as little as a two weeks notice. But with a rescheduled date in Portland next Friday, it’s unlikely that we’ll get a show this season. We reached out to Badu's team member, Cold Cris, to get more information but we haven't heard back.

Hopefully, this year is just an outlier, and we’ll be able to make more memories with Badu at the Factory soon enough. But if last year truly was the “final boss,” we’re happy with the legacy the show has left behind. Guess we’ll see you next lifetime, Erykah? No hard feelings.

Here are some memorable scenes from Badu birthdays past:

Dave Chappelle covering “Creep,” 2016

Chappelle was a frequent attendee of the annual birthday bash, once describing it as a church he goes to once a year. In 2016, he emceed the event himself, which culminated in a live karaoke rendition of Radiohead’s “Creep” as the show came to a close. Chappelle clearly has an affinity for the song, giving it another random performance years later at Madison Square Garden with the Foo Fighters.

Those lasers during "Otherside of the Game"

Arguably one of Badu’s best tracks, “Otherside of the Game” comes to life in a uniquely science fiction way when performed live. As the opening keyboard riff begins, a laser screen comes down between Badu and the audience. The laser “shocks” her a few times as she touches it, before she steps through it and reveals herself again to the audience. As the song concludes, a circle of individual lasers come down from the ceiling and revolve around Badu like a UFO preparing to abduct her. The R&B icon has worn her sci-fi influences on her sleeve for decades now, so seeing it physically manifest will never not be special.

Thundercat and Teezo Touchdown, 2024

At the tail end of last year’s show, indie pop hitmaker Thundercat and genre+gender bender Teezo Touchdown surprised the audience with one song each, “Them Changes” for the former and the feature verse from Drake’s “7969 Santa” for the latter. It was a fun surprise to see them in general, but watching two of alternative music’s contemporary weirdos join a stage with the alternative music weirdo felt like a crossover decades in the making.

Badu’s stage dive, 2020

Being a rock star requires a mentality, not a sound. Badu’s ferocious stage dive after her 49th birthday reminded us that she can send just as much a shockwave through a crowd as any artist. It was poetic too, in a way, for Dallas to hold up Badu with their hands after she held the city’s music scene on her shoulders for so many years.