Haitian Icon Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill to Celebrate 30 Years of "The Score" in Central Park
The Great Lawn of Central Parkwill echo with one of hip-hop’s most consequential sounds this September, as the Haitian artist Wyclef Jean and the American singer, Lauryn Hill, two former member of Fugees group, will return to the same stage to mark 30 years since the release of The Score, the 1996 album that turned three young artists into global icons.
Global Citizen announced on August 13 that the haitian songwriter Wyclef and his former bandmate Lauryn will headline the 2026 Global Citizen Festival, set for Saturday, September 26, at Central Park’s Great Lawn.
The event will be hosted by Global Citizen Ambassador Hugh Jackman, with appearances from Rachel Brosnahan and Gayle King. The rest of the lineup includes Lenny Kravitz, John Legend, Lainey Wilson, Shaboozey, and Tomorrow X Together, according to the festival’s official announcement.
Released in February 1996, The Score remains one of the best-selling and most influential albums in hip-hop history, anchored by the group’s Grammy-winning cover of Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly,” alongside “Ready or Not” and“Fu-Gee-La.”
The album’s blend of conscious lyricism, Caribbean rhythm, and soul has kept it in cultural rotation for three decades, and its influence runs especially deep in Haitian and diaspora communities, given Wyclef Jean’s Haitian roots and the group’s frequent nods to Haitian identity and history in their music.
This september’s performance is a Hill-and-Jean collaboration built around the Fugees catalog.
Hill and Jean have been quietly rebuilding their own creative bond over the past year. The pair made a surprise appearance together at KOKO in London in August 2025 ahead of the Grammy Awards, performing songs including “Killing Me Softly”and “Ready or Not”. They followed that with a 30th-anniversary performance of The Score at Global Citizen’s Rio de Janeiro event on Ipanema Beach in June2026.
Wyclef has since spoken publicly about reconciling with Hill, describing the renewed bond as having his “sister” back after years of estrangement he detailed in his 2012 memoir.
