The Essence Festival is known for having some of the most memorable tributes to ever hit the festival scene. Remember when Patti Labelle, Usher, Gerald Levert, Faith Evans, Ashanti, Kelly Price and Ron Isley all paid homage to Luther Vandross in 2003? If not, check that out here.
To commemorate 20 years of the festival, we decided to give artists the opportunity to pitch to us who they would like to tribute and what other artists they would like to assist them in tributing that artist. We will unveil a new Essence Fest Dream Team every Wednesday, so make sure you come back each week to see who your favorite artists consider legendary and worthy of a tribute on the main stage.
First up is Slip-N-Slide Records freshman artist Sebastian Mikael:
The legend would be Sade. I would pick Jhené Aiko – I think she’s amazing. I really wanna pick new artists because there are a lot of great new artists coming out. Aloe Blacc, I think he’s great too. I would also pick James Fauntleroy. And I love Alicia Keys so I would have to have her in there.