In between throwing an explosive 46^th birthday party, sampling Drake, and providing spiritual life advice to her Twitter fans, Erykah Badu has also announced a world tour spanning over 20 cities in five months. The tour, titled ‘Badu vs. Everythang’ kicks off this Saturday at the Birmingham Funk Fest in Alabama. It then travels through Europe and the US, and ends in October with shows in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan. Not only a highly regarded singer-songwriter, artist and activist, Badu is also frequently praised as a performer with powerful stage presence and soulful live shows. Unfortunately for Australian fans, no down under tour dates have been announced. Although to make light of a bad situation, this also presents the perfect opportunity and excuse to plan a trip to the closest tour location in Japan, because who knows when Erykah Badu will ever be this close to Australia again. If you need some motivation to book those flights, let Erykah’s silky smooth live performance of ‘Tyrone’ persuade you.

• Words: Ikumi Cooray