After seven long years, PartyNextDoor’s long awaited return to Toronto was a truly historic event at History on Thursday night (May 25th). The Mississauga native hosted his surprise PARTYNEXTDOOR and friends concert with no prior details about who the extra guests would be. The free concert was announced a mere 3 weeks before the event, with the RSVP lottery filling up instantly. The lucky 2500 fans who were able to get tickets were met with surprise appearances from Boi-1da, Lavi$h, Savannah Re, Majid Jordan, dvsn, Roy Woods, Baka Not Nice, Smiley, and none other than The Boy himself, Drake. This welcome home concert by PartyNextDoor, quickly turned into a complete OVO FEST, showcasing the best of Toronto.
The night started out with LAVI$H’s soulful set. Chubbs from OVO discovered LAVI$H, and signed him directly to Tunji Balogun, CEO at Def Jam Recordings, who hand-selected LAVI$H to join the coveted label. The young artist left a lasting impression at the sold out show with his smooth vocals, captivating performance, and strong stage presence. The new OVO-affiliated artist’s show created a lot of intrigue amongst the crowd and at the end of his set LAVI$H announced his upcoming debut EP release “You Made a Big Mistake” dropping on June 9th. LAVI$H’s short but sweet performance effortlessly drew the audience in and set up the perfect atmosphere to start the night.
Bringing along another Toronto favourite, Savannah Ré continued with that energy to put together a stunning performance filled with melodic tunes, her set took the listeners on an emotional wave.
The suspense grew as the crowd was set in, waiting for the first PartyNextDoor performance since 2016. The long awaited headliner opens up the show with “Welcome to the Party” to an ecstatic crowd. The vocals resonate through the entire crowd vibing to Party with his full band ensemble backing him. A truly historic night gets the first surprise appearance with Majid Jordan and Party singing side by side. The filled out venue is beaming with energy as Party continues to bring out the OVO star-studded line up including dvsn, Roy Woods, Baka Not Nice and Smiley all bringing out their best during their solo guest performances. The concert really turned into a festival with back to back performances from the best artists in the city.
The biggest surprise of the night came as PartyNextDoor played “Come and See Me” with a surprise Drake appearance. Drake performs his verse on “Come and See Me” followed by an announcement “I’m going on tour, Party dropping PND 4” dropping hints at the release of the long awaited PARTYNEXTDOOR 4 coming very soon. He lets the audience know “I heard the new album, it’s one of those summers”.
In the heartwarming speech, Drake says to Party what everyone was thinking “Can you come home more please?”. Drake continued to show love to PartyNextDoor:
“I am so grateful for you, I would not be the artist I am if it wasn’t for you. This is really actually my favourite artist in the world”.
Although the concert wasn’t marketed as OVO fest, it may as well have been with the all star showcase of the top OVO artists sharing a stage together. PartyNextDoor managed to put together a historic sold out homecoming concert with the city showing how much they missed him.
Welcome home Party.
