Catch these R&B icons at the 2023 Washington State Fair. Tickets go on sale this week

R&B icons will dominate the Washington State Fair’s grandstand in a few months.

Artist Babyface and girl group SWV will perform Saturday, Sept. 23, at the Puyallup fairgrounds.

Presale tickets go on sale 10 a.m. Wednesday, April 19. Instructions to access the presale are available at thefair.com/activities/babyface/. Regular tickets go on sale 10 a.m. Friday, April 21. Prices range from $45-$70, which includes admission to the fair.

Babyface has 12 Grammy Awards. He is also a co-founder of a record label called LaFace, which helped kickstart the careers of musicians such as Usher, TLC and Outkast.

Babyface’s latest album, “Girls Night Out,” features artists such as Ella Mai, Kehlani and Ari Lennox. His multi-platinum albums are “Tender Lover” (1989), “For the Cool in You” (1993) and “The Day” (1996). He is a 2017 Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee.

SWV’s sound and aesthetic “laid the foundation for musicians to come,” according to a news release from the Washington State Fair. This year marks the 30th anniversary of their three-time platinum album, “It’s About Time,” which sold 3 million copies worldwide.

“Weak” (1993) was SWV’s first No. 1 hit. It lasted on Billboard’s Hot 100 for two weeks, selling over a million copies in the U.S. Other artists such as JoJo and Kanye West’s Sunday Service have covered the song.

Some of the other artists performing at the fair include Kane Brown, Chicago, Third Eye Blind, and the Zac Brown Band.

This story was originally published April 18, 2023 at 5:00 AM.

Angelica Relente

The News Tribune

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Angelica Relente covers topics that affect communities in East Pierce County. She started as a news intern in June 2021 after graduating from Washington State University. She is also a member of Seattle’s Asian American Journalists Association. She was born in the Philippines and spent the rest of her childhood in Hawaii.