Lauryn Hill jamming at
Stockholm's 2005 festival.
Photo: bastomas on Flickr
using Creative Commons

by Beata Loyfman

"Killing me softlyyyyyyy, with his song. . . ." In 1996, there was no way to escape this chorus from The Fugees' cover of Roberta Flack's 1973 smash. Headlined by the talented and beautiful Lauryn Hill, The Fugees ignited the neo-soul movement. And when her 1998 solo album won five Grammys, 23-year-old Hill found herself on top of the music world. And she didn't like it. So she disappeared to her native South Orange, N.J., suburbs and had five kids (one for each Grammy) with Bob Marley's son. She emerged only to record a strange acoustic album and perform at odd venues (often arriving hours late and behaving erratically).

You can imagine our surprise when Starpulse reported that the reclusive Lauryn Hill would be a headliner at the 26th annual Stockholm Jazz Festival (July 15-19). We nearly fell off our chairs with excitement! Besides Hill, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Booker T, Raphael Saadiq, and Joss Stone are slated to perform.

If you decide to take advantage of low fares to Europe, be sure to check out some of the Continent's other awesome music festivals. And if you bump into Ms. Hill, please tell her to "Doo Wop (That Thang)"--she'll know what you mean.