Little Simz has planned to play a one-off orchestral set when she appears at London’s Meltdown 2025 Festival, as the first artists on the line-up have been announced. The event will be taking place between Thursday June 12 and Sunday June 22.
Simz will be joined onstage by the Chineke! Orchestra, one of Southbank’s six Resident Orchestras. Made up of primarily black and ethnically diverse musicians, it strides to champion diversity in classical music.
Simz has also curated the lineup for this year, hand-picking a number of artists to perform, including The Streets, Lola Young, Ghetts, Jon Batistse and Sasha Keable. In a press release, Jane Beese, Head of Contemporary Music at Southbank shared her excitement for Little Simz Meltdown Festival plans: “Ranging from jazz, hip hop, R&B, electronic and soul with a lineup 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.”
Simz will be playing hits from her catalogue as well as new tracks from her upcoming album, ‘Lotus’. Throughout her career, her production has featured live instrumentation and orchestral elements, most notably on her fourth album ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’. The grand textures of that release were admired by critics, with Pitchfork saying: “The arrangements here are glorious: huge swathes of string and horn, cascading drums, choral flourishes. These songs luxuriate in their own richness.”
Around a month ago in February, Simz announced her new album ‘Lotus’, which is scheduled to release on May 9 2025. Alongside the announcement, she released a single from the upcoming album called ‘Flood’, featuring Obongjayar and Moonchild Sanelly. With a striking cinematic, black-and-white video, the rock-tinged, tension-building track sees Simz reel off valuable lessons in navigating fame as well as some confident brags: “Talk nice, but my silence is louder / Spend ’nuff, but my finances louder”
Simz had a busy 2024, a year which saw her praised for her standout performance at Glastonbury, honoured with a MOBO award, and named one of BBC Radio 6 Music’s Top Artists for the year. She released her “Drop 7” EP last February to critical acclaim. She also made a couple of guest appearances, on Sampha’s “Satellite Business 2.0”, Coldplay’s “We Pray” and Wretch 32’s “Black and British”.
In December she dropped the single ‘Hello, Hi”, teasing to fans that new music was on the way. After some cryptic social media posts, she announced that her new album was on the way.
Tickets for Meltdown 2025 will go on sale to Southbank Centre members tomorrow (Wednesday, March 26) at 10am, and to the general public on Friday (March 28) here.
