Buju’s Overcomer Tour has reschedules 5 dates the artiste’s management has announced.
Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Inglewood, California, and Chicago have been rescheduled. No reason was given for the postponements, but the statement declared that, “The Overcomer Tour is on, and there will be no cancellations.”
The Overcomer Tour opens, as initially planned, on August 23 at Amerant Bank Arena in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Atlanta, Georgia, and Hartford, Connecticut are scheduled for September.
The other dates in August are Tampa; Washington, DC; and Boston.
The Overcomer Tour was announced 48 hours after Buju Banton performed to sold-out audiences at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, on July 13-14.
It is the Grammy-winning artiste’s first trek of the United States since 2009’s Rasta Got Soul tour. The Long Island gigs marked a triumphant return to that country.
“They said to me, you will never come back to the United States of America,” Banton told the sold-out crowd at Long Island’s UBS Arena on the steamy evening of July 14. “I said to them, lets see what God will do.” Banton took the stage in New York for the first time since 2008 and in the U.S. for the first time since 2011, the year that he was found guilty of federal drug crimes. He served seven years in a Georgia prison before being released and deported to his native Jamaica in 2018. Earlier this year, he was granted a visa to return to America, and over the course of a mid-July weekend, he received a hero’s welcome with two back to back shows at the 18,500-capacity venue.
Banton has recorded pop and dance songs, as well as songs dealing with sociopolitical topics. He released early dancehall singles in 1988 but came to prominence in 1992 with two albums, including Mr. Mention, which became the best-selling album in Jamaican history upon its release. Banton signed with major label Mercury Records and released Voice of Jamaica the following year. By the mid-1990s, Banton had converted to the Rastafari faith, and his music undertook a more spiritual tone. His 2010 album Before the Dawn won Best Reggae Album at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards.
