Saturday, November 21 • 7:30 PM
Market Hall
REIGN: The Queens of Blues, Soul & Rock ’n Roll is what happens when a big band doesn’t just back a singer — it builds a whole world behind her. Part live biographical concert, part full-throttle celebration, this multimedia production honours the Black women who didn’t simply enter music history — they rewrote it, often while being told they didn’t belong there in the first place. These are the voices who carried a century of sound on their backs, claimed their crowns anyway, and earned titles like Queen, Goddess, Mother, and Empress the only way that matters: by changing what the rest of us thought music could be.
The show moves through the 20th century like a guided tour with a pulse, stitching storytelling to dynamic big-band power and the kind of songs that don’t age — they just keep finding new people to light up. Expect anthems made famous by Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Patti LaBelle, Big Mama Thornton, Whitney Houston, Roberta Flack, Tina Turner, Gloria Gaynor, and more — a lineup that spans blues grit, soul velvet, rock ’n roll swagger, and the kind of pop command that can stop a room cold.
If your musical DNA includes “Proud Mary,” “Lady Marmalade,” “RESPECT,” “Mr. Big Stuff,” or “I Will Survive,” you already know the vibe: songs that aren’t just catchy — they’re survival tactics, declarations, battle cries, and victory laps. REIGN treats them with the scale they deserve, giving each era its shine while keeping the focus where it belongs: on the women who pushed through adversity, revolutionized the industry, and made the mainstream follow their lead.
Leading the charge are JUNO nominee Patricia Shirley, soulful vocal powerhouse Geri Defoe, and Garnetta Cromwell, a finalist at the Memphis International Blues Challenge—three voices built for this kind of material: fearless, flexible, and flat-out commanding. Tying it all together is special guest narrator Farley Flex, the longtime Canadian Idol judge, bringing the through-line and the spotlight to the stories behind the songs.
REIGN isn’t nostalgia. It’s recognition. It’s a crown passed hand to hand across generations — and a reminder that the music we call “classic” didn’t get that way by accident. It got there because these women made it impossible to ignore them.
