Five-time GRAMMY Award-winning soul singer, songwriter, and producer Lalah Hathaway releases her new album MADE IN CHICAGO. Rooted in warm, intimate, soulful vocals, MADE IN CHICAGO grew out of a single image. Hathaway saw herself in a leather coat, looking out at Lake Michigan with the Chicago skyline in the distance and from there, a flood of music came back to her, echoing her childhood in the city. MADE IN CHICAGO arrives on what would have been the 81st birthday of her father, Chicago-born soul legend Donny Hathaway. The album continues a remarkable career run for Hathaway, who holds the record for most consecutive wins in the GRAMMYs’ Best Traditional R&B Performance category and has been nominated at each of the last two ceremonies, including Best R&B Album for 2024’s VANTABLACK. She’ll bring the new music to several stages this fall, including a special guest appearance alongside Robert Glasper at New York’s Blue Note on October 11 and a set on the Soul Train Cruise in November.
Across nine tracks, Lalah creates a lush musical landscape that reimagines her past while projecting her future, drawing from the sounds and experiences that shaped her Chicago upbringing. The result is an illuminating collection of songs with flavors and attitudes that stand apart from anything in her previous work. Hathaway made the album with longtime collaborator and co-producer Phil Beaudreau, with contributions from saxophonists Amber Navran (Moonchild) and Hailey Niswanger and flutist Elena Pinderhughes rounding out its world. Marking the tenth album Lalah has recorded since beginning her career, MADE IN CHICAGO reflects on the musical foundation that shaped her while continuing to push her sound forward. In August, Lalah released her first single “Can’t Let Go,” which she calls her “quiet storm,” is a slow-burning ballad about holding onto a love that may not return, drawing inspiration from the Quiet Storm sound of artists like Anita Baker and Luther Vandross. Earlier that month, she released “47th Street,” a tribute to Chicago’s South Side that traces her family’s Great Migration and reflects on the neighborhood and community that shaped her. Listen to “Can’t Let Go” HERE and “47th Street” HERE, and stream the album HERE.
To mark the occasion, Lalah has partnered with the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) to voice station announcements heard by riders across the rail system. October 1 is both her father’s birthday and the CTA’s 79th anniversary. Tonight, Lalah celebrates the release at The Land School, the South Side arts space from acclaimed artist Theaster Gates. Gates has spent nearly two decades turning vacant buildings in his hometown into cultural landmarks, most famously the Stony Island Arts Bank, a shuttered bank he bought from the city for $1. The evening will feature collective listening to selections from the album, followed by a conversation between Lalah and Gates on music, place, and the Chicago sounds that have carried through her life and artistic practice. The night will culminate in a dance party spun by DJ and music historian Duane Powell, Rebuild Foundation’s decade-long house music partner. The event connects the album to the city that inspired it, celebrating the rich musical and cultural history of Black Chicago while serving as a fitting homecoming for a record rooted in Lalah’s memories of growing up there and the sounds that shaped her.
Lalah Hathaway shares, “I feel these songs live at the intersection of nostalgia and melancholy,” says Lalah. “I will forever be processing the loss I suffered as a child when, in the winter of 1979, my father died at age 33. That pain is permanent. And so is the imprint his music has on mine. But MADE IN CHICAGO is not a ‘daddy album.’ It’s much more about the joyful music I heard heading into my teens.”
The daughter of Donny Hathaway, Lalah Hathaway had soul, jazz, and R&B as second nature, and carved her own lane from the start. She landed a record deal while still at Berklee College of Music and scored her first hit, “Heaven Knows” off her 1990 self-titled debut. Across eight studio albums since, through 2024’s VANTABLACK, her smooth, deep low register and vulnerable songwriting have earned her a catalog of milestones: a #1 live cover of Luther Vandross’ “Forever, For Always, For Love” in 2004; a Grammy-nominated Top 10 album in Self Portrait; and a live cover of Anita Baker’s “Angel” that hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart 11 years after its release. She shares the record for most Best Traditional R&B Performance Grammys with Beyoncé, and her live collaboration with Snarky Puppy on “Something” remains a showcase for her scatting and rare polyphonic technique, which Jennifer Hudson has said “no one else is capable of doing.” She’s shared stages with Prince, Stevie Wonder, and Herbie Hancock, and worked with artists from Chaka Khan and Kendrick Lamar to Robert Glasper and Moonchild — a career built on a voice that keeps classic R&B’s heartbeat alive while raising the bar for jazz and soul vocalists everywhere.
TRACKLIST
47th Street
So Smart
Follow
Can’t Let Go
Every Little Thing
Rainbo
Someday
Time
Magic
LIVE DATES
October 2nd, 2026 – Charleston, SC – Charleston Music Hall
October 3rd, 2026 – Orlando, FL – Judson’s Live
October 4th, 2026 – Orlando, FL – Judson’s Live
October 7th, 2026 – Charlotte, NC – Knight Theatre
October 8th, 2026 – Alexandria, VA – The Birchmere
October 9th, 2026 – Alexandria, VA – The Birchmere
October 11th, 2026 – New York, NY – Blue Note w/ Robert Glasper
October 24th, 2026 – Napa, CA – Blue Note Summer Sessions
November 7th, 2026 – November 10th, 2026 – 2026 Soul Train Cruise
November 13th, 2026 – Hampton, VA – Annual Jazz Legacy Foundation Festival
November 15th, 2026 – New York, NY – Sony Hall
November 16th, 2026 – Annapolis, MD – Maryland Hall by Rams Head
December 10th, 2026 – Detroit, MI – Motor City Casino
FOLLOW LALAH HATHAWAY
*Photo by Lyndon French
