John Legend is Coming to The CT Forum!

Just Announced!

Six-time Grammy Award winning musician and philanthropist John Legend will join Wyclef Jean as a panelist for the Forum Music Fest on Saturday, May 1, 2010!

Legend has performed all over the world including the recent Hope for Haiti telethon, The Democratic National Convention, and President Obama's Inauguration Celebration. His music is a blend of pop, soul, and r&b that is fueled by his intelligence, intuition, sensuality and spirit. He has released three albums that have sold in the millions: Evolver (2008); Once Again (2006); and Get Lifted (2004).

Legend considers his awards and record sales to be fringe benefits, and focuses on making a difference and touching lives beyond his music. He is known for his philanthropic work and for encouraging fans to get involved. In 2007, he started the Show Me Campaign, calling on fans to help in his philanthropic work for the Ghanaian village of Bossaso. Nearer to home, he partnered with Tide Detergent to raise awareness about the need of families in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, still reeling after Hurricane Katrina. Legend is also the national spokesman for Management Leadership for Tomorrow, a non-profit organization that assists the next generation of African American, Hispanic and Native American leaders in major corporations, non-profit organizations and entrepreneurial ventures.

For more information about John Legend and his music, you may visit our website and John Legend's official website.

For more information about Forum Music Fest or to purchase tickets - including "Ultimate" ticket packages, please visit our website or call us at (860) 509-0909 ext. 23.

Wyclef Jean: Hip-Hopping Humanitarian

As you may know, Hip-Hop Musician and Humanitarian Wyclef Jean will be a panelist at our Forum Music Fest on May 1, 2010. A Haitian native, Wyclef has long been an advocate for the people of Haiti, fighting to bring hope and change to the distressed nation. Since last week's devastating earthquake, Wyclef has been on the ground in Haiti aiding in both rescue and humanitarian efforts. In an interview with Oprah, he described the disaster as "an apocalypse, the seventh hell." Amidst his efforts, questions arose last week about the legitimacy of his foundation, Yele Haiti, after financial records released by The Smoking Gun suggested a potential misappropriation of funds. Wyclef directly addressed these allegations in a press conference on January 16th, 2010:

"Have we made mistakes before? Yes. Did I ever use Yele money for personal benefit? Absolutely not. Yele's books are open and transparent, and we have been given a clean bill of health from an external auditor."

All this recent press may have you wondering...

Who is Wyclef jean?

Wyclef Jean is a multi-platinum musician, actor, producer, and former member of The Fugees, a group MTV ranks as one of the best hip-hop groups of all time. Although best known as a hip-hop artist, Wyclef embraces many forms of music and all expressions of culture, from classic rock to ska to down and dirty bass to country to thugged-out rap to folk and reggae.

The son of a preacher, Wyclef was born in Haiti and moved with his family to Brooklyn, New York when he was nine-years-old, before moving again to northern New Jersey. He received his first guitar from his mother and studied jazz through high school. He briefly attended Eastern Nazarene College, before dropping out of school to pursue music.

In the early 1990’s he formed the hip-hop trio The Refugee Camp (a.k.a. The Fugees) with Lauryn Hill and Prakazrel “Pras” Michel. The group’s debut album, Blunted on Reality, sold poorly, but their follow-up album, The Score, became one of the largest-selling and most influential hip-hop records in chart history, selling over 18 million copies worldwide and eventually becoming a multi-platinum, Grammy-winning album. Their cover of Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly" topped U.S. airplay charts for weeks.

Despite their groundbreaking success, The Fugees have remained in limbo, with a follow-up album to The Score being continually postponed as all three members cultivated solo careers. Wyclef released his first solo CD, The Carnival, in 1997, featuring the single “Gone Till November” which earned him a Grammy nomination for best Male R&B Vocal Performance.

He has since recorded six solo albums, collaborating with guests including (click link to listen to the collaboration) Kenny Rogers, Earth, Wind & Fire, Mary J. Blige, Santana, Shakira, and many others. His latest album, Wyclefjean, is scheduled to be released in February 2010.

In all, Wyclef has sold more than 31 million albums throughout his career. Over the years, he has emerged as a leading champion for Haiti, serving as a spokesperson for many issues and created his foundation Yele to help children both in Haiti and the United States by providing scholarship opportunities, food distribution, humanitarian aid and now, earthquake relief.

We applaud Wyclef for his long standing support of the people in Haiti-come back soon to learn more about what you can do to help.

Wyclef Jean Reacts to Haiti Earthquake Tragedy

Soon-to-be- Forum panelist and Haitian native Wyclef Jean has gone to Haiti to lend aid in his homeland in the aftermath of yesterday's tragic earthquake.

In a statement from his blog, Wyclef states:

"I cannot stress enough what a human disaster this is, and idle hands will only make this tragedy worse. The over 2 million people in Port-au-Prince tonight face catastrophe alone. We must act now."

Wyclef appeared on CNN this morning, sharing his very personal reactions to this tragedy:



Wyclef has already done incredible work in revitalizing Haiti and is asking for support. He founded Yele Haiti, a movement that is helping to bring hope back to Haiti. Yele Haiti projects are designed to make a difference in the fields of education, health, environment and community development.

The hip-hop artist and producer is also utilizing his twitter account to generate support for Haiti, urging people to donate $5 via text message to Yele. This fundraising effort has now become one of the most popular topics on twitter, and has resulted in thousands of retweets. In fact, Yele.org has received so much traffic that the website crashed, and as of 1:30 EST is still down.

The U.S. State Department Operations Center is urging Americans seeking information about family members in Haiti to call 1-888-407-4747.