If there’s any event serving as the social hotspot right now, it’s The Boy Is Mine Tour. Hitting every major city in North America, R&B icons Brandy and Monica’s joint musical venture has been a mega hit, with celebrities from Beyoncé to Rihanna showing up and showing out as fans first and foremost. Putting aside their ‘90s feud to come together musically, the tour has been a declaration of unity and celebration of sisterhood. While it surely hasn’t gone without a few hiccups, it has ultimately served as a major success.
Black women, especially, have come out in droves, reliving their adolescence by hearing the very songs that shaped their childhoods. Within that, the success of the venture has proven what Black women have long been craving in the music industry: a return back home to the heart of R&B and the uninhibited celebration of womanhood.
The Evolution of R&B
The co-headlining concert tour, named after their 1998 duet, “The Boy Is Mine,” is set to run from October 16th through December 14th. With a revolving line of opening acts, the tour has brought out long-standing R&B legends like Kelly Rowland and Mya, while platforming names of the new generation, like Jamal Roberts and Coco Jones.
While R&B spawns a promising new Mount Rushmore, with names like Destin Conrad and Kehlani holding the baton in hopes of bringing back the genre to its yearning roots, it’s clear we’ve strayed far from the days of Brandy and Monica’s inception. Black women clearly long for the genre to return back to its base, where vocals were the centerpiece and yearning was the compass. R&B has evolved, as all genres do, but it most certainly has fallen short on preserving what artists like SWV and Whitney Houston used to offer the space.
Women who were raised on that kind of R&B feel estranged from its warmth, as commercialized modern R&B fails to encapsulate the same emotional depth and vocal range. Black women need a catalog in which their heartbreak and passion are validated, particularly by artists with distinct vocal agility. The Boy Is Mine Tour celebrates that very foundation of R&B, highlighting an industry void.
The Power of Healing
Beyond all else, the tour proves that the public values healing, reconciliation, and coming back home to sisterhood. While 1998’s “The Boy Is Mine” was a major hit, things went downhill quickly afterward. The feud between the singers was a highly publicized rivalry fueled by industry pressures and public perception. While the artists initially played into the narrative due to the song’s theme for marketing purposes, this eventually created genuine tension and a divide. It even escalated into a physical altercation backstage while rehearsing for the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards.
However, it’s important to note that both artists were teenagers when they recorded the song: Monica was 17 and Brandy was 18 at the time. They’ve since grown into their womanhood and acknowledged how far they’ve come from the petty drama. Being so young under historic success and immense pressure only fed the turbulence, though they’ve been able to find healing on the other side. Publicly reconciling with new collaborations, a 2020 Verzuz battle, and now their joint tour proves that if love was there once, it can always be recaptured.
Black women are no longer feeding off of women in the same industry, being pit against one another. Feuds and beefs are not what upkeep morale. It’s sisterhood, forgiveness, and collaboration that align more closely with what Black womanhood is centered on in the present day and age. Seeing Brandy and Monica find safety in one another again honors the divinity of Black sisterhood. Beyond a show of throwback classics, The Boy Is Mine Tour is a celebration of Black culture, from its musical preservation to its communal healing.