On this day in music March 16 2000, Jay-Z and Beyoncé met for the first time at MTV’s Spring Break festival in Cancun. Beyonce was with her group, Destiny’s Child and Jigga was a solo Hip Hop hit-maker. They would go on their first date two years later. The power couple are now married with three children and several number 1 hit singles.
In Jay-Z’s song “713” off the album Everything Is Love, he rapped about meeting the singer for the first time, decrying it was fate that made the connection.
“We played it cool at the pool of the Cancun, VMA / Confidence you exude make the fools stay away / Me, I played my room, let the fools have they say / Fate had me sittin’ next to you on the plane / And I knew straight away,” he rapped.
In 2019 Buju Banton staged the first leg of his Long Walk to Freedom Concert at the National Stadium in Jamaica to an audience of over 50,000. The concert marked his comeback performance after serving time in a United States Prison for cocaine related charges.
See below a snapshot of other musical happenings on this day and watch the full Long Walk To Freedom concert here
- In 1945 the #1 song in America is “Rum and Coca-Cola” by The Andrews Sisters. It’s a sanitized cover of a calypso song about American servicemen in Trinidad who get drunk and solicit prostitutes.
- In 2019 “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X makes the Country chart, but is removed the following week by Billboard. Billy Ray Cyrus then jumped on a remix that goes to #1 on the Hot 100. The song is now the highest certified song in RIAA history.
- In 1968 Otis Redding‘s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay” hits #1, becoming the first-ever posthumous #1 hit.
- In 1929, Singer Betty Johnson is born in North Carolina. Her biggest hit is “I Dreamed,” which hits #9 US in 1957.
