On Friday (Dec 15), Anita Baker pulled into Houston’s Toyota Center for her Songstress Tour. The tour is celebrating the 40th anniversary of her debut solo album, The Songstress (1983). However, Baker is under fire after she allegedly behaved rudely to the H-town audience.
In the middle of the concert, Baker was singing Feel the Need from the 1983 album and grooving to the lyrics, “Early in the morning! Later in the evening, baby” when she suddenly ad-libbed, “Turn off the camera, baby. I don’t know who you are. Move back! … Get on back, I don’t know who that is.”
She reportedly asked people in the audience to turn off their phone cameras and “move back.” Not only that, but Anita Baker also asked the security to escort some people out of the venue.
One person commented under TheShadeRoom’s post that Babyface wasn’t lying when he went on record to call Anita Baker “mean,” after she dropped him as the guest singer from her ongoing tour.
While it’s not clear why she had folks removed, some on social media defended Baker, explaining that people were “rushing” the stage and security did nothing to stop them.
For a quiet storm singer, Baker’s The Songstress Tour has been making quite a bit of noise after she dropped fellow legend Babyface as her supporting act over the summer.
Baker embarked on the tour in February but in May, Babyface missed a performance in Newark, later explaining that, “I was asked not to perform in order to give Ms. Baker her space and time to perform her show in its entirety.”