Iconic R&B group En Vogue will sing at halftime of the WNBA Finals Game 5 on Monday night (Oct 26), returning the Oakland trio to the San Francisco arena where they sang during the 2025 NBA All-Star Game. Fifth Harmony's Dinah Jane has the national anthem before the 5 p.m. PT tipoff between the Golden State Valkyries and the Atlanta Dream.

Original members Terry Ellis, Cindy Herron and Maxine Jones make up the current lineup, the same voices behind "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)" and "Free Your Mind" in 1992. The game airs at 8 p.m. ET on USA Network and CNBC and streams on Peacock.

What kind of night it becomes depends on Saturday. Atlanta took a 2-1 series lead with a 97-71 rout in Game 3 at State Farm Arena on Wednesday (Oct 21). Game 4 tips off in the same building at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday (Oct 24) on NBC. The best-of-seven format guarantees Game 5, but a Dream win this weekend would put En Vogue onstage in the middle of a game Atlanta could clinch on the Valkyries' home floor.

Golden State opened the series with a 68-64 win in San Francisco on Oct 17, then dropped Game 2 by a 79-65 score before the series moved east. Angel Reese finished Game 3 with 21 points and 12 rebounds, the youngest player in Finals history to post three straight double-doubles. The Valkyries turned the ball over 19 times for the second game running. Neither franchise has won a championship, so the league will crown a first-time winner by Oct 31 at the latest.

The music around these games has stayed close to home by design. For the opener, Oakland singer Goapele handled the anthem, Berkeley resident Rita Moreno played the pregame drum and San Francisco rapper Larry June took halftime. Game 2 brought Alanis Morissette to the anthem, Too $hort to the drum and Vallejo's LaRussell to the break. Off the court, the Finals calendar had already pushed Doja Cat to move a San Francisco concert out of the way.

En Vogue brings more history into that lineup than anyone booked so far. The group formed in Oakland in 1989, released Born to Sing the next year and followed it with Funky Divas in 1992, the album that carried both of the singles still anchoring its sets. Earlier this month the trio played Toyota Pavilion in Concord on a bill with TLC and Salt-N-Pepa, a short drive from the arena where it will sing Monday.

In February 2025, En Vogue shared the Chase Center floor with Saweetie, E-40 and DJ Cassidy during the Bay Area showcase at the NBA All-Star Game, a set built around the region's hip-hop and R&B catalog. Monday's crowd is there for a women's team in only its second season, playing in the first Finals in franchise history.

Rappers carried the first two halftimes, and the Valkyries have now handed their biggest home date yet to a group whose first single, "Hold On," reached radio in 1990. Dinah Jane, whose own group was assembled on The X Factor in 2012, opens the night with the anthem before tipoff.

If Atlanta wins on Saturday, the last music the Chase Center crowd hears before the Dream play for a title will come from three women who started singing together in Oakland in 1989.