Drake and J. Cole to play at FedExForum in Memphis: What we know about the show

When it comes to Drake and Memphis, it looks like the third time may be the charm.

After two different Drake concerts at FedExForum were postponed then canceled earlier this year, the multiplatinum rap superstar has confirmed a new date at the Downtown venue for March 5, 2024. It will mark his first major concert appearance in Memphis in more than a decade.

Tickets for the show — part of a new leg of Drake’s It’s All a Blur Tour — will go on sale this Friday at all Ticketmaster outlets and the FedExForum box office.

Drake performs during Lil Baby’s Birthday Party at State Farm Arena on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2022, in Atlanta. (Photo by Paul R. Giunta/Invision/AP)

The upcoming tour — titled “It’s All a Blur – Big As The What?” — follows Drake’s 2023 run, which sold out some 50 shows with 21 Savage. The new leg will feature J. Cole as part of the package.

The tour — which supports Drake’s recent chart-topping album, “For All the Dogs” — is set to kick off in mid-January in Denver and end in late March in Birmingham, Alabama. In addition to Memphis, the tour will make other regional stops, playing two nights in New Orleans (Jan. 29 and 30) and Nashville (Feb. 7 and 8), dates that were rescheduled from the fall.

The March/Memphis concert announcement seems to set things right between Drake and the Bluff City, which he has proudly hailed as his spiritual home, where his father and extended family live, and where he was given a key to Shelby County this summer.

The new concert announcement follows an odd sequence of events surrounding Drake and his attempts to perform locally. For a week in June, Drake was holed up at FedExForum rehearsing for his It’s All a Blur Tour, which was supposed have launched at the venue June 29.

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But just days before the concert, the June show was postponed to Aug. 6 — and that show was also canceled just days before the scheduled performance, leaving disappointed fans scratching their heads and awaiting ticket refunds to the sold-out event.

Drake speaks onstage during Drake’s Till Death Do Us Part rap battle on Oct. 30, 2021, in Long Beach, California.

A statement from Drake’s representatives given to FedExForum after the cancelation said that, “Due to the magnitude of the production of the Drake concert, it is logistically impossible to bring the show as designed to the FedExForum on August 6th. Unfortunately, the show is cancelled.”

The statement’s wording left fans and media members somewhat perplexed. How could a show and production that had already been set up and staged at FedExForum for a week during rehearsals, suddenly be “logistically impossible” to bring to Memphis?

According to a FedExForum official, the issue wasn’t that the show’s design couldn’t fit into venue, as some speculated online, but rather that breaking down and transporting the production in time for the next scheduled date would be impossible.

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As part of the summer tour, Drake was typically playing two- or three-night stands in major markets, with a break of multiple days before moving to the next city. The exceptions during the August leg of the tour were two single shows in smaller markets, Memphis and Milwaukee — both of which were affected, with the Milwaukee concert pushed back a day, and Memphis canceled entirely. (Several other dates on the tour’s fall leg also had to be rescheduled.)

An immediate rescheduling of the Drake show in August was complicated by the fact that the Memphis Grizzlies — FedEx’s main tenant — had yet to have their schedule for the 2023-2024 NBA season confirmed.

Now with everything clear, Drake is set for a triumphant return to the Bluff City in 2024.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Drake and J. Cole to play at Memphis’ FedExForum: Here’s what we know