Kanye West felt as if he had come "home" when he played at New Orleans' famous Superdome venue on Saturday (02Jul11) to headline the Essence music festival.
The rap superstar took his show to the Louisiana music event for a star turn at Essence, which saw performances from stars including Usher, Jennifer Hudson and Boyz II Men over the weekend (02-03Jul11).
West surged through a two-hour set of hits including Stronger, Gold Digger and Runaway, and walked down to the front of the stage to shake hands with the crowd during a rendition of Power, telling the audience, "It feels good to be home. When I say home, I'm talking about with my people. I been around the world... got into a little controversy here and there... I just wanna say I thank ya'll (sic) for standing by me and supporting me even when they said my career was over."
Mary J. Blige closed the festival on Sunday night (03Jul11) and subsequently thanked her fans and family for turning out to watch her perform. She writes in a post on her Twitter.com page, "Thank U (sic) New Orleans and all my fam (family) that was at Essence festival 4 (sic) all your love 2night (tonight)!"