Lauryn Hill marks 20 years of Miseducation album with arena tour

Lauryn Hill will mark the 20th anniversary of her classic album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill with five UK and Ireland arena dates in November and December.

The rapper and soul singer came to fame in hip-hop trio the Fugees, scoring two UK No 1s in 1996 with Ready or Not and their cover of Killing Me Softly, before Hill went solo. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill remains her only studio album, but is widely regarded as one of the best of the 90s – its singles Doo Wop (That Thing) and Ex-Factor both reached the UK Top 5, with the former topping the US charts. On its release in the US, the album broke the record for first-week sales by a solo female artist, and was nominated for 10 Grammy awards, winning five, including album of the year.

Hill continued to tour but later took herself out of the public eye, and was sentenced to three months in jail in 2013 for tax evasion. She returned with six well-regarded recordings for the Nina Simone documentary What Happened, Miss Simone? in 2015, and The Miseducation ... also continues to be highly regarded, with Ex-Factor being prominently sampled twice this year, on Drake’s chart-topping single Nice for What and Cardi B’s single Be Careful.

Her 2014 tour of the UK was marred by bad reviews from critics and audiences. The Telegraph called the arrangements of Miseducation tracks “bafflingly obscure”.

The UK dates follow a run of shows in the US, which begins on 5 July in Virginia Beach. Announcing that tour, Hill said: “This album chronicled an intimate piece of my young existence. It was the summation of most, if not all, of my most hopeful and positive emotions experienced to that date. I Loved and believed deeply in my community’s ability to both Love and heal itself provided it received the right amount of support and encouragement. Our world today, both complex and changing, is in need of the balance between moral fortitude and cathartic expression. I hope the Love and energy that permeated this work can continue to inspire change with Love and optimism at the helm.”

The UK tour begins at Glasgow’s SSE Hydro on 23 November before heading to Manchester Arena (26 November), Birmingham Arena (27 November), Dublin’s 3Arena (30 November) and London’s O2 Arena (1 December).