LEWISBURG (WVDN) – Fair officials announced Monday Grammy Award-winning rap superstar Nelly will return to the State Fair of West Virginia on Friday, Aug. 11. Tickets for the show will go on sale Friday, Feb. 10, 2023, at 10 a.m.
“Nelly put on an amazing, sold-out show here in 2021,” State Fair CEO Kelly Collins said. “When the opportunity presented itself, we knew we had to book him again.”
Diamond Selling, Multi-platinum, Grammy award-winning rap superstar, entrepreneur, philanthropist and actor, Nelly has continually raised the bar for the entertainment industry since stepping on the scene in 2000 with his distinctive vocals and larger-than-life personality. His collaboration with Florida Georgia Line received Diamond status and he is only one of seven rappers to reach this honor. He is touring around the globe and recently was the first artist to play in Saudi Arabia with a mixed gender/family crowd. He is the first hip hop artist to play with multiple symphonies nationwide and played himself in BET’s Real Husbands of Hollywood with Kevin Hart. His sports knowledge and love of all sports secured him a gig as a sportscaster with Skip Bayless. 2019 is going to be a huge year for the hip hop mogul, currently Nelly is in the studio preparing for new music to be released in addition to several business ventures to be announced in the first quarter.
Nelly embarked on his music career with Midwest hip hop group St. Lunatics in 1993 and signed to Universal Records in 1999. Nelly entered the spotlight with the release of Country Grammar in 2000, spending seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 and spawning the massive hits “Ride Wit Me,” “Country Grammar” and “E.I.” The album landed Nelly four Grammy Award nominations and sold over 9 million copies worldwide. “Country Grammar” is Nelly’s best-selling album to date, selling over 8.4 million copies in the United States.
Nelly kept the momentum going with the 2002 release of “Nellyville.” The album debuted at No. 1 on top of scoring Nelly his first two Grammy Awards for “Hot in Here” – Best Male Rap Solo Performance – and “Dilemma” [feat. Kelly Rowland] – Best Rap Song Collaboration. This album was highly successful and was certified 6x multi-platinum by the RIAA on June 27, 2003. He has since gone on to win multiple American Music Awards, a Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award, Soul Train Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards and was crowned “Top Pop, Rap and R&B/Hip-Hop Artist of The Year” by Billboard. He has been referred to by Peter Shapiro as “one of the biggest stars of the new millennium,” and the RIAA ranks Nelly as the fourth best-selling rap artist in American music history, with over 21 million albums sold in the United States. On Dec. 11, 2009, Billboard ranked Nelly the No. 3 Top Artist of the Decade.
