August 11, 2026 - Music Observer

Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean Confirm New Fugees Music at Inaugural Diaspora Calling! Festival in Milton Keynes

Music Observer Staff 2 on August 11, 2026

Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean confirmed they are working on new music together, ending nearly three decades of silence from The Fugees’ recording catalog during a BBC interview ahead of their headlining performance at the inaugural UK edition of Diaspora Calling! festival at Milton Keynes National Bowl on August 7. The one-day festival drew more than 35,000 fans and doubled as a celebration of the 30th anniversary of The Score, the trio’s 1996 album that won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album in 1997.

Key Takeaways

Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean told BBC News on August 5 that new music together is coming, with Hill confirming the plan in a single word during the interview.
The Diaspora Calling! festival at Milton Keynes National Bowl on August 7 drew over 35,000 attendees for its first UK edition.
Hill and Jean performed material from The Score, the Fugees’ Grammy-winning 1996 album now marking its 30th anniversary.
The festival lineup included Erykah Badu, Giggs, Fireboy DML, YG Marley, and Zion Marley, with Dave Chappelle hosting.
Third Fugees member Pras Michel is currently serving a prison sentence on 10 criminal counts, including conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.

Hill and Jean Address Years of Tension and Signal a New Chapter

Speaking to BBC News on Wednesday, August 5, two days before the festival, Jean posed the question directly back to Hill during the interview: would there be new music in the future? Hill’s response left little room for ambiguity. The confirmation landed with particular weight given the decades of friction between Fugees members, a dynamic that has derailed multiple reunion efforts since the group’s split in 1997.

Hill described the current dynamic between the bandmates as the product of sustained personal repair work, framing it as a reconciliation that took years to reach. Jean echoed the sentiment, telling the BBC he felt the pair had arrived at a creative and personal equilibrium that had not existed in a long time. The Fugees have not released a studio album since The Score, a record that has sold more than 22 million copies worldwide and produced tracks including “Killing Me Softly,” “Ready or Not,” and “Fu-Gee-La.”

The relationship between the three Fugees members has been turbulent for years. In 2024, the group canceled an 18-date North American leg of a highly anticipated reunion tour just days before the opening show. That cancellation spiraled into a lawsuit from Pras Michel against Hill, alleging fraud and financial misconduct tied to the tour. Michel voluntarily dismissed the suit in 2026. Michel is now serving a federal prison sentence after being convicted on 10 criminal counts, including conspiracy and acting as an unregistered foreign agent, charges stemming from a separate lobbying case.

Diaspora Calling! Festival Draws 35,000 to Milton Keynes National Bowl

The festival itself reflected Hill’s broader artistic ambitions beyond recorded music. Hill conceived Diaspora Calling! in 2016 as a music and arts platform celebrating the culture, creativity, and shared histories of the African diaspora. The concept launched with a curated art exhibition and live performance at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn and later expanded into touring events featuring artists like Nas, Kehlani, Noname, and Little Simz. The Milton Keynes edition marked the initiative’s first time on UK soil and Hill’s only confirmed British appearance for 2026.

The August 7 show extended well beyond a standard concert format. Los Angeles artist Lauren Halsey presented animated visual work commissioned specifically for the festival, while fashion activations from Denim Tears, Kids of Immigrants, and Topicals ran alongside a curated marketplace highlighting diaspora-owned designers, artists, and entrepreneurs. A film program featuring works from Arthur Jafa and Kahlil Joseph added a cinematic layer to the event. MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy addressed the audience on reparatory justice and strengthening diaspora connections, grounding the festival in political as well as cultural context.

On the performance side, Dave Chappelle handled hosting duties throughout the day. The musical lineup spanned generations and genres: Erykah Badu joined Hill onstage for a rendition of “Doo Wop (That Thing),” Giggs and Kano shared a set representing British rap, Fireboy DML brought Afrobeats, and Seun Kuti carried Afrobeat legacy. Hill’s sons YG Marley and Zion Marley, both grandchildren of Bob Marley, each performed, with Zion paying tribute to his grandfather with “Three Little Birds.” DJ OBI opened the event, and Michael Brun delivered a Caribbean-rooted DJ set later in the day.

The Score at 30 and What Comes Next

The Score’s 30th anniversary has provided the connective thread for much of Hill and Jean’s joint activity in 2026. The pair performed together at the Global Citizen Live festival in Rio de Janeiro on June 6 and held a fan signing event at 180 Studios in London on August 5, the same day as the BBC interview. Backstage at Milton Keynes, the guest list reflected the cultural gravity of the occasion: Gunna, Common, Rapsody, Tiwa Savage, Little Simz, Stonebwoy, Victony, Derek Chisora, and Sabrina Elba were all in attendance.

Whether the confirmed new music will take the form of a proper Fugees album remains unclear given Michel’s incarceration. Hill and Jean have not specified a format, timeline, or label arrangement. What they did make clear at Milton Keynes is that the creative relationship between them has survived the lawsuits, the canceled tours, and the years of public silence, and that whatever comes next, they intend to build it together.

FAQs

When Was the Last Fugees Album Released?

The Fugees’ last studio album, The Score, was released on February 13, 1996. The record won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album in 1997 and has sold more than 22 million copies worldwide.

What Is Diaspora Calling! and Who Created It?

Diaspora Calling! is a music and arts initiative conceived by Lauryn Hill in 2016. It celebrates the culture, creativity, and shared histories of the African diaspora through live music, visual art, film, fashion, and community programming. The Milton Keynes edition on August 7, 2026, was the festival’s UK debut.

Where Is Pras Michel Now?

Pras Michel is currently serving a federal prison sentence after being convicted on 10 criminal counts, including conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, in a case separate from his 2024 lawsuit against Lauryn Hill.

From Punk to Prayer: How Ananda Xenia Shakti Found Devotion, Freedom, and the Ecstatic Self

Music Observer Staff on August 11, 2026

By Johnny Rodriguez

There are few artists whose lives can be divided into such dramatically different chapters as Ananda Xenia Shakti’s. In one life, she was Xenia Holliday, a fearless young musician helping to define the late-1970s punk scene as a founding member of the B-Girls, performing alongside legendary artists such as The Clash and lending her voice to Blondie’s AutoAmerican. In another, she became a spiritual seeker, teacher, and creator of devotional music dedicated to healing, compassion, and the transformative power of love.

Yet, according to Ananda, those worlds are not nearly as far apart as they might seem.

“They are all in the pursuit of a fuller and deeper expression of one’s self, of freedom, of uniting, of breaking down boundaries to allow what is real to rise,” she explains. “By cultivating really high-powered energy and directing it toward the desire to go out of control, out of the control of conditioning, you discover the ecstatic self on the other side.”

That idea of liberation has been the central thread woven throughout her remarkable journey.

The B-Girls were among the pioneering all-female punk bands of their era, emerging at a time when musical conventions were being challenged and rewritten almost daily. Ananda was only eighteen years old when the group formed, and the experience would shape the way she viewed both art and life.

“It taught me that dreams do come true,” she says. “Dream, have fun first and foremost, and trust the dream. Life is magic.”

By conventional standards, the band was on the verge of enormous success. Opportunities were appearing, recognition was growing, and the future seemed to be opening in exciting new directions. Then everything changed.

Ananda experienced a profound spiritual awakening that altered the course of her life forever.

“I left the punk world when our band was at its height,” she recalls. “I found what I had been looking for. I knew that all of my seeking and searching through the punk days had led me to that moment.”

She understood instinctively that she couldn’t fully inhabit both worlds at once. To continue her journey, she would have to leave behind not only a successful musical career but also the temptations of fame and recognition.

“I needed to immerse myself fully in the new experience,” she says, “so that I wouldn’t fall back into older, familiar states of consciousness.”

Today, that spiritual path finds expression through Love Power the Band and the release of her latest single, Devotion.

The song emerged during a silent meditation retreat in Andhra Pradesh, India. What began as an evening of physical discomfort gradually transformed into a profound spiritual experience. Unable to meditate in the traditional sense, Ananda began softly chanting and soon discovered that a melody was beginning to emerge.

“When I felt the song’s self-soothing quality, I decided right then that I was going to find a way to record it that would capture exactly what I was feeling in that moment.”

For Ananda, inspiration isn’t something that can be forced. It arrives naturally when the mind becomes quiet enough to receive it.

“Most music is inspired rather than linearly written,” she explains. “For me, much of that inspiration comes while communing with what I would call the angelic realm. I’m listening to a source frequency. It has an openness and a flow to it. It all arrives at once.”

That perspective shapes not only her music but her understanding of life itself. One of the most important lessons she learned came from her first spiritual mentor, who helped her realize that life’s challenges are not obstacles but invitations.

“I learned that every experience can bring us into a greater reality of love,” she says. “We are never victims of our lives. Life is always on our side. Creation is always on our side. It is always compelling us to become a greater and more complete version of ourselves.”

That philosophy lies at the heart of Devotion, which explores the idea that expansion often arises from contraction and that transformation can emerge from discomfort.

The mission of Love Power the Band extends far beyond music itself. Ananda hopes that listeners experience something much deeper than simple entertainment.

“I sincerely wish that Love Power the Band serves as an experience of remembering,” she says. “That people remember that they are love and that unity is truth.”

In a world often defined by conflict, division, and uncertainty, she believes music can become a form of medicine.

“It’s perfect medicine for our challenging times.”

As for the future, Ananda’s dreams remain as expansive as ever. She envisions creating a healing center that combines spirituality, music, and the fine arts to help people discover wisdom, beauty, joy, and a renewed sense of wholeness. She also hopes to build an online community where people can gather, learn, heal, and connect.

Above all, she hopes to continue sharing the message that has guided her extraordinary journey, from the raw energy of punk rock to the stillness of meditation halls and the sacred sounds of Devotion.

Her message is a simple one.

Remember the love that you are.