New Orleans’s own The Dixie Cups to celebrate the 60th anniversary of their hit, “Chapel of Love,” with concert at Loyola University

The School of Music and Theatre Professions at Loyola University New Orleans is pleased to present an evening with The Dixie Cups on March 7 at 7:30 p.m. in Nunemaker Auditorium, in celebration of the 60th anniversary of their hit, "Chapel of Love."

The evening will begin with a performance by Loyola vocal trio, Final Take, followed by a Q&A session with original Dixie Cup Barbara Ann Hawkins, hosted by Arthel Neville, said Jonathan McHugh, Hilton-Baldridge Eminent Scholar/Chair in Music Industry Studies. The Dixie Cups will then take the stage for a free, 45-minute concert, he said.

"It's not just the years but what the song means to people," Hawkins said. "Almost everybody has heard it and knows it. It's such a happy song, and it means so much."

The Dixie Cups - sisters Barbara Ann and Rosa Lee Hawkins and their cousin, Joan Marie Johnson - began singing together in grade school while living in the Calliope Housing Project in New Orleans. The trio shot to fame in 1964 with their hit song, "Chapel of Love," which knocked the Beatles out of the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and sold more than 1 million copies.

The Dixie Cups had several other songs hit the Top 100, most notably the popular Mardi Gras song, Iko Iko, in 1965. The trio was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2007. Johnson died in 2016, and Rosa Lee Hawkins died in 2022.

As 2024 marks the 60th anniversary of "Chapel of Love," the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is honoring The Dixie Cups on this year's poster. The trio, now consisting of Barbara Ann Hawkins, Athelgra Neville and Naydja CoJoe, also will perform on the festival's first day, April 25.

Athelgra Neville is the daughter of Art Neville and niece of Arthel Neville, who is Art's sister. Hawkins said she is thrilled Arthel will be conducting the Q&A session at Loyola because she considers Arthel "a niece by extended family."

The community concert is the first in a new music series called "Live at Loyola," which will take place once a semester with "words and music," McHugh said. The Hilton-Baldridge endowment that funds McHugh's professorship also is paying for concerts

that allow legends like The Dixie Cups to come play at Loyola, McHugh said.

The three singers who comprise Final Take - Kennedi Rose, Kyron Butler and Renaissa Washington - are the best vocalists at Loyola, he said. McHugh said he wanted to pair The Dixie Cups and Final Take as a "best of the old, best of the new" type of concert.

Attendance is free, but seating is limited, so RSVP at http://cmm.loyno.edu/calendar/school-music-and-theatre-professions/smtp-spring-24-community-concert-feat-dixie-cup.