Labelle’s Pioneering Legacy Garners Lincoln Center Tribute: ‘We Were All That … And a Bag of Chips!’

More than 50 years ago, an historic occasion occurred at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House. Pioneering “Lady Marmalade” trio Labelle became the first African American female group to headline the storied Lincoln Center venue in 1974. Against the backdrop of Black Music Month, this achievement is being celebrated during a one-night reunion event (June 28): “Nightbirds: The Music of Labelle.” The tribute features Labelle founding members Nona Hendryx and special guest co-host Patti LaBelle.

Among the vocal virtuosos paying homage to Labelle will be Grammy winner Ledisi, Sandra St. Victor, Kimberly Nichole and Tony Award winner Adrienne Warren. Accompanying them will be three original Labelle musicians: Eddie Martinez (guitar), Carmine Rojas (bass) and Jose Rossy (percussion). And as noted on the Lincoln Center website, attendees are being asked to “come dressed in your most iconic silver outfit” — mirroring the 1974 concert’s “wear something silver” tagline commemorating Labelle’s metallic, spacesuit costumes.

Commenting on the event and Hendryx’s role as its curator, Shanta Thake, chief artistic officer of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, told Billboard via email: “We’re thrilled to have this incredible tribute as part of this year’s Summer for the City festival. The festival invites everyone to experience the fullest expression of art and community, and ‘Nightbirds: The Music of Labelle’ is a powerful reflection of that spirit. Nona Hendryx has long been a vital part of the Lincoln Center community, an artist whose work has always been ahead of its time — pushing boundaries, shaping American popular music and showing us new ways of being together.”

Labelle, best known for the global hit “Lady Marmalade,” first gained notice as ‘60s girl group Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles. Rechristened as the trio Labelle in the ‘70s, members LaBelle, Hendryx and Sarah Dash (who died in 2021) added funk/glam rock and progressive soul to its R&B and gospel repertoire. Their barrier-breaking transformation yielded “Lady Marmalade” and the gold-certified breakthrough album Nightbirds. Labelle’s final album was 2008’s Back to Now.

Ahead of the upcoming “Nightbirds: The Music of Labelle,” Billboard caught up with Hendryx and LaBelle via email:

What does this full-circle moment mean to you?

Hendryx: Lincoln Center is a world-renowned institution that has for decades decided what counts as serious American art. Bringing Labelle’s music there again isn’t nostalgia. It’s a continuation of correction. We were the Sweethearts of the Apollo first before the 1974 concert and becoming the first African American female group to headline the Metropolitan Opera House — a building that had never imagined three Black women in silver space-age armor on its stage, singing funk, rock and gospel all at once. David Geffen Hall, home of the New York Philharmonic, is part of that same lineage of rooms that weren’t built with us in mind. Putting ‘Nightbirds’ there says the music has always belonged in spaces like this. The concert is making sure the record reflects it.

LaBelle: I thought it was about damn time. LOL! But seriously, I’m very happy and honored that it’s happening!

What key memory still stands out about Labelle’s historic Met concert?

LaBelle: What stands out to me was how many people were there. When I came down from the ceiling, my costume got caught in something, and we thought that was hilarious. I always laugh when I think about that. But it had a major impact! It let people know that we weren’t an ordinary girl group; that we were ahead of our time. That concert really opened people’s eyes to who and what Labelle was.

Hendryx: What stays with me isn’t a single moment. It’s walking onto that stage in Larry LeGaspi’s silver costumes and realizing the audience — a mixture of hardcore Patti Labelle and the Bluebelles fans, newly minted Labelle fans and people who didn’t know what box to put us in — was witnessing history. They couldn’t call it opera, rock & roll or just R&B. We were Afro-Future before it was popular. That night didn’t just open doors for Labelle. It proved that Black women didn’t need permission to inhabit the future. It gave us license to keep refusing categories for the rest of our careers.

Please choose one word that captures Labelle’s barrier-breaking legacy and why that word?

Hendryx: Audacity. The audacity to walk onto the most established stages, opera houses in America, England and Europe wearing costumes nobody had seen before, singing songs that crossed every genre line at once — and doing it as three Black women who weren’t waiting to be invited [but] creating our own tours. It’s the connecting thread that runs from Nightbirds and “Lady Marmalade.” It’s the same spirit and refusal to shrink to fit someone else’s idea of what we were allowed to be.

LaBelle: I’ll give you three words: Priceless. Iconic. Brilliant. We were truly groundbreaking. There was never anyone like us before or since. We were all that … and a bag of chips!