Maxwell will return to the road in late September for a series of select North American concert dates, his first since wrapping a sold-out summer tour in early August. Maxwell's highly anticipated autumn tour heads to Joe Louis Arena at 7 p.m. Saturday, September 26.
BLACKsummers'night, the artist's long-awaited fourth studio album, entered the Billboard Top 200 at #1 following its release on July 7 and has achieved RIAA Gold status, having sold more than 500,000 copies since its release.
Moving his classic R&B production from theaters to arenas for the second leg of his BLACKsummers'night North American tour, Maxwell's autumn concerts will feature multiple Grammy winning R&B/rap artist Common providing main support, and 2009 Best Urban/Alternative Performance Grammy winner Chrisette Michele as opening act.
Maxwell's 2009 autumn shows mark the artist's second run of full length concerts since breaking a then-six-year hiatus from live performance in October 2008 with a standing-room-only US tour. Maxwell's riveting live performances were met with unanimously positive critical responses. The New York Times praised Maxwell's Radio City Music Hall concert as "exquisite" and "powerful" while the Boston Herald lauded his "awesome talent."
The first leg of Maxwell's BLACKsummers'night tour generated rave reviews from coast-to-coast.
BLACKsummers'night is the second consecutive Maxwell album to enter the Billboard 200 at #1, the long-awaited successor to 2001's similarly chart-topping Now. With first week's sales of 316,499, according to SoundScan, BLACKsummers'night the best overall sales week of Maxwell's career. BLACKsummers'night peaked at #1 on the SoundScan Album Retailer chart and the Current R&B chart.
Released on Tuesday, July 7, on CD and in a Limited Edition Deluxe CD/DVD set, BLACKsummers'night is already generating hit singles. The first, "Pretty Wings," rocketed to the #1 slot on America's Urban Adult radio stations after completing an earlier run as the nation's #1 Greatest Gainer/Most-Added song at the Urban Mainstream format. "Pretty Wings" peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart, and is currently #2 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, where it's spent 13 weeks.
"Bad Habits," the lead track and second single from BLACKsummers'night, reached #1 Most Added song at Urban Adult radio according to Mediabase, the music industry's first mass-airplay monitoring service. Both "Bad Habits" and "Pretty Wings" have made the Top 10 of America's Urban Adult Contemporary charts with "Bad Habits" peaking at #7 and "Pretty Wings" locking down the #1 slot.
BLACKsummers'night reached #1 on the iTunes R&B Albums chart while "Pretty Wings" hit #1 on the iTunes R&B Singles chart.
BLACKsummers'night is the sensuous opening installment of the artist's monumental BLACKSUMMERS'NIGHT trilogy. (The trilogy's subsequent chapters, blackSUMMERS'night and blacksummers'NIGHT, are slated for release in 2010 and 2011 respectively.)
BLACKsummers'night reunites Maxwell with long-time collaborator Hod David, who serves as co-producer and co-writer of the album. Striving for an emotional authenticity and real world sound for the album, Maxwell and Hod recorded the entire album live in the studio with an a-list ensemble of elegantly sympathetic musicians.
The press response to BLACKsummers'night has been ecstatic.
Tickets ($20, $39.50, $59.50 & $89.50) go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday, August 15 and may be purchased at OlympiaEntertainment.com, the Joe Louis Arena and Fox Theatre box offices, Hockeytown Authentics in Troy (without service charge) at all Ticketmaster locations and Ticketmaster.com. To charge tickets by phone, call (800) 745-3000. For additional information, call (313) 471-6611.
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