Lauryn Hill to Return to the Stage at Montreux Jazz Festival

Somehow Rock Daily missed this earlier today when we mentioned the headliners for Europe's prestigious Montreux Jazz festival: Lauryn Hill is one of the 1,000 artists booked for the event, which is in its 43rd year. The Swiss fest runs from July 3-18th. Per Reuters, Hill will play the Stravinski Auditorium on July 11th after a tribute to Nina Simone, which features Dianne Reeves, Lizz Wright and Angelique Kidjo.

Hill's most recent public appearance came in October 2008, when a photographer caught her hanging out with Martha Stewart at a book signing in her native New Jersey. Prior to that, she last took the stage in August 2007, when she performed a two-hour-plus set in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood. The free concert drew a giant crowd, and included a brief set of Bob Marley songs, a run through of Fugees hits and a cover of Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." That show came just weeks after Hill's former Fugee bandmates, Wyclef Jean and Pras, had complained to the press that she was stopping the group from reuniting (they last took the stage together in February 2006). There's been little concrete information about Hill's musical plans. She has reportedly been working on a solo album since 2004.

Last August to mark the 10th anniversary of Hill's blockbuster The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Rolling Stone spoke to many of those responsible for making the LP for an exclusive oral history.

Related Stories:

• Inside "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill"
• Lauryn Hill Shocks Fans With Two-Hour-Plus Career-Spanning Brooklyn Concert
• The Mystery of Lauryn Hill

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Song Stories

“Youth Knows No Pain”

Lykke Li | 2011

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”

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