Christine and the Queens’ Meltdown – first acts announced
Christine and the Queens’ Meltdown line-up
Meltdown festival returns in June 2023, handing over the Southbank Centre keys to yet another musical great. This year your curator is the genre-bending pop-visionary Christine and the Queens – and that could only mean one thing: ten days celebrating selfhood, identity and creativity, and masses of unforgettable, unexpected music headed your way.
Your first slice of magic is ready for you now. Scroll down to see the first acts on the line-up.
Members’ presale opens Wednesday 15 March, 10am. General booking begins Friday 17 March, 10am.
‘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.’
Christine and the Queens
Pop royalty
Christine and the Queens
SAT 17 & SUN 18 JUN
The curator of this year’s Meltdown festival opens his heart for two headline performances of sublime, genre-bending pop, including tracks from the new album PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE, released Friday 9 June.
These performances are British Sign Language interpreted (BSL).
Voilà
Django Django
FRI 9 JUN
Spin into the four-piece’s unpredictable orbit in the wake of their fifth album, Off Planet.
Yemi Alade + Moonchild Sanelly
SAT 10 JUN
Afropop superstar Yemi Alade makes her way to Meltdown, accompanied by a queen of gqom.
Warpaint
MON 12 JUN
Dreamy art rock from a band channelling newfound positivity.
Kokoroko
WED 14 JUN
Melding jazz and Afrobeat into something new, this band shows what makes London’s music scene special.
Oxlade
THU 15 JUN
Singing passionate falsetto over lively Afrobeats, Oxlade is changing the face of the Nigerian music industry.
Sigur Rós & London Contemporary Orchestra
FRI 16 JUN
Music that deserves an orchestra gets an orchestra.
The new life
serpentwithfeet
FRI 9 JUN
Silken love songs from an artist imagining and exploring a world where Black love is paramount.
Let’s Eat Grandma
SAT 10 JUN
Digging further into more intense feelings with their recent music, Let’s Eat Grandma give you synth-pop with loads of emotional welly.
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs
FRI 16 JUN
Slip and slide across the floor to TEED’s slinky dance creations.
Comme si
SQÜRL
SUN 11 JUN
Take an enthusiastic trip to the rock margins with Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan.
Johnny Jewel
WED 14 JUN
The composer and shaper of ultra-vivid textural landscapes, whose film score credits include Drive, plays a live set.
Bat for Lashes
THU 15 JUN
Natasha Khan, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, visual artist, director and master of the distinctively haunting and darkly fantastical.
Lynks
SUN 18 JUN
Find fabulous chaos and ‘total sensory overload’ at a show from one of queer pop’s most potent forces.
Soap&Skin
SUN 18 JUN
The experimental musical project of singer-songwriter Anja Plaschg pitches softly between sorrow and anger.
Want early access to tickets?
Southbank Centre Members can book Meltdown tickets from Wednesday 15 March, before they go on sale to to everyone else.
If you’re not a Member, now might be the time.
Sign up and you also get free entry to the Hayward Gallery, discounts across our shops and restaurants, access to the Members’ Lounge and no booking fees.