Little Simz is set to play a one-off orchestral show at London’s Meltdown 2025, with the first wave of names revealed today for the Southbank Centre event.
READ MORE: The NME Big Read – Little Simz: “It’s nice to see my peers win. When they win, I win”
The British artist was previously revealed to be curating a boundary-breaking line-up for this year’s edition of the 11-day festival, and will be taking to the stage herself as one of the performers.
She will be joined by the Southbank Centre Resident Orchestra Chineke! Orchestra for a unique performance in the Royal Festival Hall on June 22, featuring hits from across her catalogue as well as tracks from her upcoming sixth studio album ‘Lotus’, which is set for release on 9 May via AWAL Recordings.
Scheduled between Thursday June 12 and Sunday June 22, the event will include a number of live performances from artists hand-selected by Little Simz, as well as two weekends of free participatory programming featuring grassroots collectives and local organisations.
The first wave of names set to take part in the 2025 edition of Meltdown Festival were shared today (March 24), and include The Streets, viral hit ‘Messy’ singer Lola Young, Ghetts, Jon Batiste, Sasha Keable with Flames Collective and Little Dragon’s Yukimi.
“Little Simz’ first taste of what’s to come from her Meltdown hugely embodies the wealth of influences and inspirations across her work,” said Jane Beese, Head of Contemporary Music at Southbank. “Ranging from jazz, hip hop, R&B, electronic and soul with a line up of both renowned legends alongside the creators of the future, this is only the start for what’s going to be London’s go-to festival this summer.”
Tickets will go on sale to members this Wednesday (March 26) at 10am, and to the general public at the same time on Friday (March 28) here.
In a previous statement, Simz added that she was “super excited to be the 2025 Meltdown festival curator”, adding that “Meltdown 2025 the Simz way is going to be epic”.
The rapper joins the huge list of legendary names that have curated Meltdown at Southbank Centre in the past, including David Bowie, Nick Cave, Patti Smith, Grace Jones, Christine and the Queens, Nile Rodgers, Robert Smith, David Byrne, Yoko Ono, Anohni, Massive Attack and Jarvis Cocker.
News she would be curating the 30th edition of the event came only days after the artist shared a cryptic message on social media, leading many fans to speculate a new album was on the way.
Little Simz live at Glastonbury 2024. Credit: Andy Ford for NME
The recently announced ‘Lotus’ follows the Mercury Prize and BRIT award-winning rapper’s previous album, 2022’s ‘NO THANK YOU’. In a four-star review of the LP, NME shared: “‘NO THANK YOU’s quiet, understated release provides parallels to Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Untitled Unmastered’ release from 2016, a series of leftovers from his ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ sessions.
“That too had a certain looseness and freedom to the tracks, and, much like Lamar, a clear-headed Simz has something to say urgently. The case for Simz to be recognised as a true modern great has only been strengthened with this release.”
She wrapped up 2024 with the release of her single ‘Hello, Hi’ and hinted that there would be more to come in 2025. Simz also appeared on the recent Coldplay single ‘We Pray’, Sampha’s ‘Satellite Business 2.0’ and on Wretch 32’s comeback track ‘Black And British’.
She also joined forces with the Tate Modern last year to curate an evening of late-night sessions of music, workshops and conversations. Last November, Simz was also on hand to present Busta Rhymes with the Global Icon Award at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Manchester.
In other news, Little Simz reportedly sued the producer and SAULT member Inflo recently over a £1.7million loan.
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