Anita Baker—multiple Grammy Award winner, composer, producer, mother and all-around superstar—contemplated long and hard before she got ready to take her show on the road again. But finally, in early 2003, the woman who gave birth to “fireside love songs” and such classic gems as “Giving You The Best That I Got,” “Just Because” and “Fairy Tales” pulled together her tight rhythm section and her faithful background singers and rehearsed; hoping to start a buzz and see if the timing was right, for a Welcome Back. She thought that her return would be like many singers, who, if gifted enough, have the opportunity to take a break and return to what they do best. Her “break” had now spanned 10 years and the tone and the texture of the industry had changed. The singers were young and flexible; many of the songs were trite and questionable. Anita wondered if she built it, would they come. And come they did, in droves. They came because most singers are not Anita Baker.

Just as soon as she decided to get back onstage, amphitheatres and arenas came calling and legions of fans came running, taking the 8-time Grammy winner around the country, before crowds of excited music lovers who were as overwhelmed by her return as they were stunned by her departure.