Brandy and Monica brought their “The Boy is Mine” tour to Little Caesars Arena on Saturday, Nov. 29. Detroit was the 24th scheduled stop for the 32-city tour and even though mother nature dropped a snow storm on the dirty mitten, it wasn’t enough to keep a sellout crowd at home.
Brandy and Monica’s careers were heavily intertwined during the ’90s and early 2000s. Both stormed onto the crowded R&B scene with big voices and contrasting teenage charm. Brandy, who was born in McComb, Mississippi, but was raised in Carson, California, was the quintessential good girl next door while the Atlanta-born Monica was equally ’hood as she was holy. Both of their first two albums (Monica’s Miss Thang in 1995 and The Boy Is Mine in 1998 and Brandy’s Brandy in 1994 and Never Say Never in 1998) went multiple platinum and both artists have earned one Grammy Award each.
The show started promptly at 8 p.m. with American Idol winner Jamal Roberts. Singer Mya was up next (who has two platinum albums of her own), performing her mega hits “Case of the Ex,” “My Love is Like…Wo” and several others. She handed our roses, posters, albums, and CDs to the crowd. Mya was fill-in for singer Muni Long, who had put out a statement earlier Saturday that she would no longer be participating on the tour due to health concerns.
Destiny’s Child alum and Beyoncé bestie Kelly Rowland took the stage next to perform her hit “Motivation” along with a cover of Force MDs’ “Tender Love” and “Solider” from her Destiny’s Child days. She sounded and looked as elegant as she did in the early 2000s and admitted to the crowd that this was her first time touring in 15 years.
After a short break and video intro, Brandy and Monica took the stage at 9:40 p.m. accompanied by a dozen back up dancers. Both women wore black and white outfits with Brandy wearing a black and white checkered trench coat over hers. (Black and white was outfit theme throughout night.)
Forty songs were curated into six acts. In Act 1 both Monica and Brandy went back-and-forth singing the the first verses of six of their more uptempo songs (“Knock Knock” by Monica, “I Wanna Be Down” by Brandy, “Don’t Take It Personal (Just One of Dem Days)” by Monica, “Best Friend” by Brandy, and “Like This and Like That” by Monica). Brandy pulled material from her Full Moon and Afrodisiac albums in Act 2, and Monica paid homage to Detroit fashion culture by wearing a mink coat and Cartier glasses as she performed “The First Night” in Act 3.
Monica wasn’t done showing Detroit love. Midway through the show she brought out three Detroit rappers: Kash Doll performed“Kash Kommandments,” Skilla Baby performed “Bae,” and Icewear Vezzo performed “Thick Bitch.”
The Acts were broken up by video montages that highlighted the different aspects of their careers. One video montage unpacked the beef and rivalry between Brandy and Monica that was perpetuated more by the media when in reality the two artists didn’t have any real issues with each other.
The duo also didn’t limit themselves to singing the first verse of all the songs, just some when it made musical sense to do so. Songs like Brandy’s “Sittin’ Up in My Room” and Monica’s “Before You Walk out of My Life” were sung longer which allowed each artist to show they still had their vocal superpowers.
Brandy gave a shoutout to deceased songstress Aaliayh and there was a Whitney Houston dedication in which both artists sang “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” The duo closed out the show thanking the crowd and each other and sang their duet “The Boy Is Mine.” Overall, Brandy and Monica looked and sounded as amazing as they did three decades ago when many of the signs were first recorded and performed. The “The Boy Is Mine” tour proved once again that the quality and nostalgia of yesteryear’s R&B still has a firm grip on music fans.