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For months,Verzuz, the musicbattle seriesfrom Swizz Beatz and Timbaland, has sustained our quarantine.
Catalogues, or singers, or producers, go head-to-head, song-to-song.
Sunday night, September 13, was the series Auntie edition:Patti LaBelle vs. Gladys Knight.
The collard greens practically made themselves.
One thing Black women gon do, is catch up, read my favoritetweet of the night.
Somebody called me and said, Would you doVerzuz?
I said, With who?
You know you have to have a partner.
They said, Gladys Knight.
The best person in the world for me to do this with is you!
Those were the stakes of the night.
It wasnt anthem against anthem or hit against hit: This was a reunion.
Patti complained that the engineers werent loading her teleprompter quick enough and couldnt remember some words to her songs.
They both gleefully sang along to one anothers hits.
It was never really a competition, but Gladys came more prepared.
It is hard for me to admit this defeat.)
But these are both personalities who know how to put on a good show.
Pattis chair was adorned with Louis Vuitton trunks topped with red-bottom heels.
More than once, she took out a gilded vintage-looking handheld mirror to dramatically check her makeup.
Gladys was dressed like a dreamy human disco ball in a rouge-colored sequined suit set.
Dont let her shoulders start shimmying to Love Overboard now!
In a second, she bounced up to do 33-year-old choreography.
I identify as an Auntie.
I watch too many melodramas, I love soul food (but cant cook it!
The Gladys-PattiVerzuzis the closest we get to experiencing that in real time again.
I felt that even more strongly on Sunday than ever before.
The nightsVerzuzwas a celebration, a reunion, a treat.
There arent words for that.
But on Sunday I didnt have to sit with that fear and anxiety and uncertainty.
Patti having a goddamn ball.
#Verzuzpic.twitter.com/J1Pvk0U1eE
