5-Time Grammy Winner Lalah Hathway Returns To Rahway March 6

Sometimes, you have to give the people what they want, and thanks to popular delnand, five-time Grammy winner Lalah Hathaway is returning to the Union County Performing Arts Center on Friday, March 6.

The R&B artist’s most recent work, Vantablack saw its release in 2024 with the single “So In Love” making its way to the charts. But Hathaway had more to give on Vantablack, and that came in several bonus tracks including “Poison + The Cure,” which was co-written with collaborator Juan Andres Carreno Ariza.

While working on Vantablack, Ariza turned Hathaway on to Israeli singer Noga Erez, whom Hathaway found to have a very meaty and aggressive style.

“As with every song 1 wrote with Juan Ariza, we would get together and talk about music that we liked and have snippets of music to play for each other,” recalls Hathaway. “Erez’s music had this aggression to it and I wanted to write a song where I could express my aggressive side.

And while being aggressive is often negative, it’s really more of a persistent and strident tone that I tend to take.”

Wanting to write a song about her country, Hathaway used instrumentation that would get the point across, highlighting her own angst and frustration she feels day to day when viewing the news.

“Lines like ‘the day our minds meld into one is the day you come undone’ really has to do with people,” she says. “We’re in a stage of history where facism is quickly taking hold and I think this is something we’ve been hurdling towards the entire time as we thought ‘oh, that could never happen.’ But once we come together and our minds get on one accord about being the rightful owners of this country, and people have access to clean water, healthcare, and clean air, that’s when we can meld together and the world can change. I don’t know if that will ever happen.”

While “Poison + The Cure” was not necessarily intended for Vantablack, it was written during the process of the album and therefore fitting in with the ethos of it. The song would appear on an expanded edition of Vantablack in 2025 along with songs like “Uptown.”

“I think it’s always nice to include something new,” says Hathaway. “It wouldn’t make much sense to make a remix or bonus record without something new on it. It was always a pleasant surprise for me to buy a remix album or a single and have something on it that I hadn’t heard before. Content is king. The more music I can make for people, the better.”

Vantablack features special guests including Common, Rapsody, and Michael McDonald.

Hathaway also shares the record for three “Best Traditional R&B Performance” Grammys with Beyonce.

Tickets for the show can be found online at ucpac.org. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the show starts at 8 p.m. UCPAC is located at 1601 Irving St., Rahway.