LONDON, UK (Top40 Charts/ BBC) The radio station's biggest gigs since
Radio 2 Live in Hyde Park in 2019,
Radio 2 Live in Leeds is being held over two days in front of 30,000 music fans each day. The tickets go on sale this
Thursday 16 June at 8am at www.bbc.co.uk/radio2live. And one more act for both the Saturday and the Sunday will be announced in the coming weeks.
Saturday 17 September
Simple Minds
Tears For Fears
Craig David
Bananarama
Ella Henderson
Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Kaiser Chiefs
Sunday 18 September
Nile Rodgers & Chic
George Ezra
Melanie C
Emeli Sandé
Mark Owen
Heather Small
Olly Murs
BBC
Radio 2 Live in Leeds will be hosted by some of the station's best loved presenters and, for the first time, there will be a
Radio 2 DJ Tent where they - as well as special guests - will be playing sets encompassing legendary tracks from Motown in the 60s to the dance classics of today.
Jeff Smith, Head of
Music for
Radio 2, says: "We're so pleased to be announcing the stellar artist line up for
Radio 2 Live, as our annual event spreads its wings for the first time across the UK. This year we will be in Leeds with two days of incredible music from an amazing line up of musicians. Having been without it for so long we all really appreciate how important live music is to all our lives and so we invite everyone to join us for
Radio 2 Live in Leeds at Temple Newsam Park or to listen or watch our weekend via BBC
Sounds or BBC iPlayer."
Councillor
James Lewis, leader of Leeds City Council, said: "It's hugely exciting to see such a star-studded line-up of world class artists being announced and we can't wait to see them in Leeds for what will be an incredible occasion for music lovers and for the city as a whole. It's also a massive endorsement for Leeds and its growing reputation as the place to see some of the biggest names in music. Temple Newsam is the ideal stage for this kind of spectacular event too and we can't wait to give these amazing acts a proper Leeds welcome."
The event will be broadcast live on
Radio 2 - which has a weekly audience of 14.6m (RAJAR Q1 2022) - and the station will also be featuring festival highlights across the weekend, with the full sets available to listen on BBC
Sounds for 30 days afterwards. The Main Stage will be live-streamed on BBC iPlayer throughout the weekend, also with performances available for 30 days. A highlights show from the festival main stage will broadcast on Saturday 24
September on BBC Two.
Simple Minds have been musical pioneers for over 40 glittering years. Catching the mood of the post-punk era they emerged with a style rooted in the art-rock of
David Bowie and the electronic dance of Donna Summer, going on to become one of the great bands of their generation and topping the American chart with Don't You (Forget About Me) and the UK chart with Ballad Of The Streets. Selling over 60 million records, three of their 20 studio albums have reached number one in the UK, and they've graced the world's biggest stadiums. Their resurgence in the past decade was honoured in 2014 with a Q magazine Inspiration award and an Ivor Novello in 2016.
Simple Minds have recently marked their 40th anniversary with a world tour, live album and career-spanning compilation and have forthcoming new album, Direction Of The Heart.
Simple Minds say: "Simple Minds are honoured to be headlining the first night of
Radio 2 Live In Leeds. We can't tell you how much we are looking forward to performing a career-spanning set for the thousands of people in Temple Newsam Park on 17 September."
Tears For Fears - Roland Orzabal (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Curt Smith (vocals, bass, keyboards) - formed in Bath, England 1981. With 30 million albums sold worldwide, performing to countless sold-out audiences, and winning numerous awards, their classic songs - ranging from Mad World, Change, Pale Shelter, Shout, Everybody Wants To Rule The World, Sowing The Seeds Of Love and the Tipping Point - have made
Tears For Fears one of modern music's most influential bands with their music being sampled by everyone from
Kanye West to The
Weeknd and covered by
Lorde and most famously
Gary Jules as part of the Donnie Darko soundtrack. In 2021 the band were honoured with the Outstanding Song Collection Award at the Ivor Novello Awards. With The Tipping Point and the subsequent current world tour,
Tears For Fears remain as loud as ever, while yet another generation gets ready to 'Shout' with them all over again!
Roland and Curt say: "We can't wait to bring some of our favourite songs, old and new, to thousands of
Radio 2 listeners in Temple Newsam Park."
Craig David MBE is a critically acclaimed British singer songwriter and one of the biggest-selling UK artists of all time. Across his 22 year career, he's collaborated with everyone from
Sting to Kano to Diplo to KSI, while also becoming one of the biggest DJs in Ibiza via his TS5 soundsystem.
Craig has received 14 Brit Award nominations, two Grammy nominations, four Mobo awards, three Ivor Novellos honouring his songwriting, and most recently an MBE for his services to music.
Craig David says: "I'm so excited to come back to Leeds and party with you all. Performing has always been where I feel most at home, so I can't wait to get out there and perform some of the tracks from my new album, 22, with my band... see you there."
For the past four decades,
Bananarama has been one of pop's most influential groups, with 30 hit singles and twelve studio albums. Their international success saw them hit the number one spot in the US and they are listed as the most charted female group in history in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Bananarama has always kept things personal, with their 2020 autobiography, Really Saying Something: Sara & Keren - Our
Bananarama Story, reminding fans that the group is built on a lifelong friendship. Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward have been a duo for over 30 years and are celebrating their group's 40th anniversary with a new album, Masquerade, out in July, a single of the same name out this month, and a string of live shows coming.
Sara and Keren says: "We last partied with
Radio 2 in 2019 in Hyde Park, so we can't wait to travel to Leeds to perform our greatest hits to
Radio 2 listeners once again in September."
Having burst on to the scene 10 years ago with a number one debut single, Ghost, and album, Chapter One, songwriter and powerhouse vocalist,
Ella Henderson has since ascended to a multi-platinum selling, two-time Brit Award nominee, with over a billion streams to her name - all by the age of 26. She has achieved five UK Top 10s as a lead artist, including Let's Go Home Together with Tom Grennan, one of 2021's biggest songs, and has an Ivor Novello nomination for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. This year, Ella released her second album,
Everything I Didn't Say, which debuted in the Official Charts Top 10. Ella has collaborated with musical luminaries including Ryan Tedder and Babyface, as well as superstar DJs including
Sigma and Kygo, and is currently featured on tracks from
David Guetta and Nathan Dawe.
Ella Henderson says: "I'm so excited to be performing at
Radio 2 Live in September. Live music is back!!! It's going to be a great show. Can't wait for this one!"
Sophie Ellis-Bextor shot to fame as a vocalist on Spiller's huge number one single, Groovejet, and her worldwide smash hit, Murder On The Dancefloor. In 2020, her Kitchen Discos - performed at home during lockdown - were watched and enjoyed by millions around the world and she now has a regular
Radio 2 and BBC
Sounds show of the same name.
Sophie also raised over £1m for
BBC Children In Need after embarking on a massive Kitchen
Disco Danceathon on
Radio 2, dancing non-stop for an incredible 24 hours.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor says: "I'm really excited to perform in
September at
Radio 2 Live. It's an amazing line up and I'm thrilled to be taking part. I'm bringing the band too - can't wait!"
Since forming in Leeds in 2000,
Kaiser Chiefs have delivered much-loved anthemic hits including Oh My God, I Predict A Riot, Everyday I Love You Less and Less, and Ruby. The band have released seven original studio albums, including their Mercury nominated debut, Employment, which sold over two million copies. Its number one follow up, Yours Truly, Angry Mob, went twice-platinum in the UK alone, and follow up, Education Education Education and War, also entered the UK Album Charts in the top spot. They have been honoured with Brit Awards, an Ivor Novello award for Album of the Year, toured with U2,
Foo Fighters and Green Day, and sold eight million albums. Lead singer, Ricky, has also hosted two series of Ricky Wilson's Rock and Roll Classics on
Radio 2.
Kaiser Chiefs say: "We've all been to some great events in Temple Newsam Park in the past and we're very excited to get the chance to finally play a hometown show there. See you at
Radio 2 Live in Leeds in September."
Nile Rodgers is a multiple Grammy-winning composer, producer, arranger and guitarist who's been inducted into both the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. As the co-founder of CHIC, he pioneered chart-topping hits like Le Freak and sparked the advent of hip-hop with Good Times. Nile transcends all styles of music and has worked with Diana Ross,
David Bowie, Madonna,
Duran Duran and
Daft Punk amongst a legacy that is responsible for over 500 million record sales.
Nile Rodgers says: "The UK is my second home and following our incredible summer tour which includes Kenwood House, Isle Of Wight and British Summer Time, I'm delighted to be joining
Radio 2 Live in Leeds in September! Some of our greatest shows have been with the BBC and
Radio 2 in particular so let's get the good times into what will be the last days of summer."
Brit Award-winning
George Ezra has just released his third album, Gold Rush Kid, and
Radio 2 listeners will be familiar with Anyone For You and Green Green Grass, both singles from the album which have been on the
Radio 2 A List, and Anyone For You is currently the most played record on radio of 2022! His previous two albums are multi-platinum, with over one million sales each.
George also performed on TV at the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace.
George Ezra says: "Absolutely delighted to be performing at BBC
Radio 2 Live in Leeds this
September - it's so good to be back on the road and playing live again - what's going to be so special for me is that I'm going to be able to play some of my brand new album, Gold Rush Kid, to the wonderful people of Leeds, along with some old favourites too!"
From her rise to fame as one fifth of the most successful girl band of all time - The
Spice Girls - to her successful solo career, Melanie C's impact on music and pop culture has been nothing short of incredible. With 11 UK number ones under her belt and, being the only female artist to top the UK charts as a quintet, quartet, duo and solo artist in British music history, Melanie's talent has gained the recognition and devotion of critics and fans all over the world throughout the last 25 years.
Melanie Chisholm, aka
Melanie C and Sporty Spice, is one of the most successful international musical artists from the 90s with more than 108 million records sold - 100 million as a member of the
Spice Girls and 23 million as a solo artist over her 28-year successful career.
Melanie C says: "I can't wait to get up on that
Radio 2 stage in Leeds. It's been a long, hard few years for everyone and it's going to be amazing to see all those happy faces, smiling and enjoying themselves again."
Multiple Brit Award-winning, multi-platinum selling artist Emeli Sandé is one of Britain's most successful living songwriters. With 19 million singles sold including three UK number one singles, six million albums and four BRIT Awards (including Best Female twice), Emeli received an MBE for Services To
Music in 2018 and in July 2019 she became the University of Sunderland's Chancellor.
Emeli Sandé says: "I'm so thrilled to be performing at
Radio 2's Live In Leeds this September.
Radio 2 listeners have always been such amazing supporters of my music and I can't wait for us to have a party together in Leeds!"
Mark Owen is one of Britain's most celebrated music stars. As part of pop group Take That, he has won eight Brit Awards, scored 12 UK number one singles, eight UK number one albums, sold over 45 million records and played live to millions of fans around the world. He released his first solo album, Green Man, after
Take That first split in 1996 and, since then, he has released a further four solo albums. His last, 2013's The Art Of Doing Nothing, was his highest charting album to date.
Mark Owen says: "Very excited to be part of
Radio 2 Live in Leeds and to be playing in the north of England later this year. Seriously, it's gonna be amazing!!!!! See you there."
Heather Small, one of the most distinctive British female vocalists of all time, began her pop career as a teenager in Hot House before becoming the voice of M People, one of the world's biggest dance acts which went on to sell tens of millions of albums worldwide, winning numerous Brits and a Mercury along the way. She launched her solo career at the turn of the millennium with Proud, featuring in theme songs for The Oprah Winfrey Show,
Queer As Folk as well as performing at London's 2012 Olympics. Heather, has teamed up with award-winning producer Rupert Christie and the London Metropolitan Orchestra to reimagine all of her Top 10 hits from both her career with
M People as well as singles from her illustrious solo career, released in July.
Heather Small says: "Excited to be invited by BBC
Radio 2 to play Live in Leeds - can't wait to see everyone, it's going to be one big party!"
Olly Murs returns to the stage for
Radio 2 Live in Leeds in what will be his first show in 2022. He's sold 1.9 million concert tickets since he featured on The X-Factor in 2009 and sold over 10 million albums. He'll also be returning to TV screens this autumn as a coach on the next season of The Voice.
Olly Murs says: "I'm so excited to be playing Live in Leeds for
Radio 2. It's my first show in over a year and I may have a little surprise for everyone!"
In the years prior to the pandemic,
Radio 2 Live in Hyde Park in London featured some of music's biggest stars including
Kylie Minogue (including THAT impromptu duet with Jason Donovan) Elton John, Pet Shop Boys, Take That, Blondie, Lenny Kravitz, Shania Twain, Rita Ora, and Jeff Lynne's ELO, who in 2014 played their first full live gig in 27 years.
Radio 2 Live at Home in 2020 brought performances from
Sheryl Crow in California,
Erasure in the UK and New York, The
Killers on the roof of
Caesars Palace in Las Vegas,
John Legend in LA,
Gregory Porter on LA's Capitol Records Tower's roof and Sir Tom Jones,
McFly and The
Pretenders in the UK.
Radio 2 Live in 2021 was the first BBC radio station to bring back live music to venues across the UK - featuring
Manic Street Preachers in Cardiff,
Steps in Manchester,
Westlife in Belfast and
Texas in Glasgow performing in front of small, socially-distanced audiences.
Across February 2022,
Radio 2's Piano Room Month - the network's biggest celebration of live music in a decade - featured 20 of pop's best-loved artists, accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra, live from London's BBC Maida Vale studios. Performers included Ed Sheeran, Joy Crookes,
James Blunt,
Clean Bandit and Anne-Marie. The highlights show is available on BBC iPlayer until February next year.
All of
Radio 2's shows are also available on BBC
Sounds live and for 30 days post-transmission so listeners can access which shows they want, when they want, and wherever they are.
