New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The Southbank Centre today announces the highly anticipated first acts performing as part of Christine and the Queens' Meltdown. Reflecting the wealth of Christine and the Queens' influences and inspirations, the 28th edition of the world's longest-running artist curated festival will take place this summer, Friday 9 June until Sunday 18 June.
No Meltdown is quite complete without performances from the curator and, so, Christine and the Queens will take to the Royal Festival Hall stage not once, but twice, on the final weekend of the festival, Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 June. Renowned for his theatricality and unrivalled pop showmanship, the concerts will be a heady climax to what will be a thrilling, genre-bending festival.
Kicking off the 10-day festival in the Royal Festival Hall on Friday 9 June will be art rock group Django Django. Mainstays of the UK indie music scene since their triumphant self-titled debut, the group have just embarked on an ambitious four-part album project, Off-Planet, which will be released near the time of their Meltdown performance.
The following night, Saturday 10 June, African Baddie Yemi Alade visits from Nigeria, reflecting the international outlook of Christine and the Queen's Meltdown, with support from Moonchild Sanelly. Meanwhile, Monday 12 June, Warpaint will make their Royal Festival Hall debut. Following a string of exceptional albums over the past 19 years, the critically acclaimed foursome returned in spectacular form in 2022, with Radiate Like This. Later in the week, award-winning Jazz powerhouse KOKOROKO will perform on Wednesday 14 June, followed by one of the most exciting young voices of Nigeria's music scene, Oxlade,
Thursday 15 June.
In a very special Meltdown moment, Sigur Rós with the London Contemporary Orchestra will open their European tour on Friday 16 June. Timed with the release of the Icelanders' first studio album since 2013's Kveikur, which featured recordings from the LCO at London's legendary Abbey Road studios, Sigur Rós founders Jónsi and Georg Holm will be joined by former member
Kjartan Sveinsson.
The
Queen Elizabeth Hall will be home to a world of contrasts from the experimental Sqürl (Sunday 11 June), featuring legendary film director Jim Jarmusch, and Chromatic and Glass Candy's Johnny
Jewel (Wednesday 14 June) to the emotive synth ballads of
Bat For Lashes (Thursday 15 June) and cheeky electro-pop patter of the masked Lynks (Sunday 18 June). Meanwhile, the
Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer will be transformed for ambitious gigs from Serpentwithfeet (Friday 9 June), Let's Eat Grandma (Saturday 10 June) and electronic producer Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (Friday 16 June). The first name announced for the Purcell Room, Soap&Skin, the experimental musical project of Austrian artist Anja Plaschg, will perform two shows on Sunday 18 June.
Further names for Christine and the Queens' Meltdown, including more shows in the
Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room, will be announced later in the Spring. Tickets for Christine and the Queens' Meltdown will be on general sale Friday 17 March at 10:00am via: https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/festivals-series/meltdown
Commenting on the first names for his festival, Christine and the Queens, said: "Art to save the city! Ten nights that are ours. Southbank Centre filled with beloved artists, some I discovered recently, some I know are amazing performers and poets. Dance. Theatre. Words and music.
Friends and future friends. Raving, hopefully. Art to save the city! To free its contours and enliven the soul — it's the why we do what we do. I can't effing wait."
Taking over the entire Southbank Centre, Meltdown brings together the whole of London and beyond to celebrate music, creativity and culture with each successive curator. There will be two weekends of free-to-attend shows, transforming the Southbank Centre's public spaces in a way that's never been seen before with outdoor parties and more inspired by Christine and the Queens' curation. Full details and names will be announced in the coming months.
Adem Holness, Head of Contemporary
Music at the Southbank Centre, commented: "Meltdown is all about inviting audiences and artists into the imagination of the curator, and the music they love. If you've ever had a chance to experience the creativity of Christine and the Queens, you'll know it's full of fun and joy, but also somewhere to help us make sense of the world around us. Meltdown 2023 is shaping up to be like no other festival we've seen. With hugely infectious energy and bold ambitions, Meltdown will encompass creativity across Christine and the Queen's creative spectrum."
Mark Ball, Artistic
Director at the Southbank Centre, added: "Christine and the Queens' boundary-breaking work has made him one of the most compelling artists of our age. It's thrilling to see the breadth of his extraordinary imagination come to life across Meltdown, one of the true highlights of the summer at the Southbank Centre. I can't wait for us all to experience his curation and celebration of selfhood, identity and creativity."
Christine and the Queens joins a truly historic cast of previous Meltdown curators. In 2022,
Grace Jones battled through disruption and delay to host her edition of Meltdown, the second highest grossing edition in the festival's 27 year history after The Cure's Robert Smith in 2018. Other legendary artists to have curated the festival include
David Bowie, Yoko Ono, Patti Smith, Nick Cave, Lee Scratch Perry and Jarvis Cocker.
