Badu, a H.E.R. comeback and two surprise guests: inside Spotify's first “RNB X Live”
Spotify's first standalone R&B festival hit Dallas on Sunday — and the night belonged to legends and the next class in equal measure.
Spotify finally did it: a festival that is R&B and nothing else. RNB X Live, produced with Live Nation Urban, took over The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in the Dallas area on Sunday night, and the lineup read like a family tree.
Hometown queen Erykah Badu headlined, and brought out The Alchemist as a surprise. H.E.R. made her return to the stage and used it to test unreleased songs, "Did You Miss Me" and "Friends", before bringing out Miles Caton. Destin Conrad, kwn and Jai'Len Josey filled out the bill, and Dallas's own rjtheweirdo opened the night.
- Date
- Sun Nov 1, 2026
- Venue
- The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
- Headliner
- Erykah Badu
- Surprise guests
- Miles Caton · The Alchemist
Look at that order again. Spotify put the women who built the sound at the top and the artists from its own new-talent programmes underneath. That's not just a concert, that's a pipeline. Three of the names on that bill show up on our first Come Up shortlist for a reason.
The bigger story: a streaming giant betting an entire festival on R&B in 2026. The genre doesn't need saving. It needed rooms like this.
Were you there? Tell us the moment.
