It’s just been announced that the great Missy Elliott will headline Sunday night at Bestival, DJ/producer Rob da Bank’s annual music festival on the Isle of Wight. When she takes to the stage on the 13th of September, it’ll be the hip-hop trailblazer’s first UK live show in over nine years. “I can’t wait to see all my fans I haven’t seen in some time… new ones and my day one fans!” Missy said in a press release. “We are gonna have a blast together! Bring your dancing outfits and kicks!”
Missy hasn’t released an album since 2005’s The Cookbook, so those fans have learned not to get their hopes up, but it’s looking increasingly likely that the rap queen could be planning a long overdue comeback. In February, she made her first high-profile appearance in half a decade at Katy Perry’s Super Bowl halftime show, joining the pop singer on stage for a sensational medley of her classic hits Get Ur Freak On, Work It and Lose Control. Later that month, Missy tweeted a picture of herself in the studio with longtime collaborator Timbaland, teasing that they were working together on some “dirty beats”. Then in April, Pharrell revealed that he too was working on new music with Missy, saying he’s been blown away by “the way her mind works [and] the things she says and thinks about”.
More recently, Missy let slip that she and another urban pop superstar, the one and only Jennifer Lopez, have been hanging together. “Thank u @JLo I had a blast with u today,” she tweeted on June 1. “Thanks 4 the encouraging words!” When a fan asked if this meant the pair had been recording together, Missy replied coyly: “… Could be. Wow fans don’t miss a beat, yall see erthang.”
So while it’s still a little soon to declare the Missy Elliott comeback “on”, it’s certainly looking promising. In the meantime, it’s pretty exciting to know she’s coming back to the UK in three months’ time to work it (put her thing down, flip it and reverse it) at Bestival.
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Photography Romana Pierzga