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Florence + the Machine
Seventeen years on from the release of her debut single, Florence Welch finds herself in an intriguingly strong position: while most of her early 00s indie peers are forgotten or in reduced circumstances, she is a major influence on pop, from Ethel Cain to the Last Dinner Party to Chappell Roan. Her recent album Everybody Scream was a strong restatement of her theatrical approach – with more light and shade than you might expect – but it’s on stage that she really comes into her own.
UK tour begins 6 February at the SSE Arena, Belfast
Deftones
Deftones’ reputational shift from nu-metal upstarts to avant rock heroes – their fandom swelled by a huge gen Z influx – is fully deserved: they were always more expansive and musically restless than their rap-rock contemporaries, their subsequent development underscored by the fact that their one-time DJ Frank Delgado is now a sort of Brian Eno figure, manipulating the sounds of other members instruments and creating electronic textures. They also still rock, in time-honoured angst-ridden style.
UK tour begins 12 February at the BP Pulse Live, Birmingham
Jill Scott – To Whom This May Concern
It’s been a very long time since neo-soul star Scott released an album: the last was the impressively eclectic Woman, in 2015. Scott has spent the intervening years touring – including a 20th-anniversary celebration of her multi-platinum debut Who is Jill Scott?: Words And Sounds Vol 1 – and concentrating on her acting career, cropping up everywhere from US superhero franchise Black Lightning to comedy series The First Wives’ Club, making her belated return to the studio a very welcome event.
Released 13 February
Charli xcx – Wuthering Heights
Charli xcx has described her soundtrack to Emerald Fennell’s forthcoming film adaptation of Wuthering Heights as “raw, wild, sexual, gothic and British”. Certainly, the first track released from it, the John Cale collaboration House, couldn’t have been more different from the sound of her epochal 2024 album Brat – a homage to Cale’s old band the Velvet Underground that also bore the influence of industrial music – and that, one suspects, might be part of the point.
Released 13 February
Raye
Under the winningly blunt title This Tour May Contain New Music – the posters also promise “at least one jazz cover”, “a brass section”, “live strings” and indeed “potential waffling” – Raye debuts material from her long-awaited second album. The singles she has released over the last couple of years have ranged from the avant and episodic Genesis to collaborations with Central Cee to the straight-up pop smash Where Is My Husband?, so who knows what that might sound like?
UK tour begins 17 February at Manchester Co-op Live
Bill Callahan – My Days of 58
The title of US indie mainstay Callahan’s eighth solo album seems to reference his age when he recorded it – there’s certainly a note of concern about getting older in the lyrics of the solitary track released from it thus far, The Man I’m Supposed to Be – with the same band that appeared on his superb 2022 album, Reality. Callahan has called it “a living room record … not too loud, not otherworldly”, which sounds both mysterious and intriguing.
Released 27 February
Lily Allen
As comebacks go, Lily Allen’s return – with West End Girl, an album that detailed the breakdown of her marriage to actor David Harbour in such forensic, eye-popping detail it seemed to shift the bar for confessional songwriting – was pretty spectacular, although it’s worth noting that there was more to the album than gossipy revelation: if the songs hadn’t been good, it wouldn’t have had little more than news value. She’ll perform the album in full in these shows.
UK tour begins 2 March at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Dave
It says something about Dave’s skill as a rapper and the sheer size and devotion of his following that his third album, The Boy Who Played the Harp – sombre, musically understated, light on obvious bangers, lyrically self-examining – wasn’t just a huge critical success, but a massive hit: all 10 of its tracks would have made the Top 20 were it not for chart rules. It will be intriguing to see how it translates on stage, particularly in venues this big.
UK tour begins 4 March at OVO Hydro, Glasgow
Thundercat
It’s five years since Thundercat last released an album – It Is What It Is was a stew of psychedelia, funk, soul and jazz shot through with mourning for the loss of his friend, rapper Mac Miller – although a string of intriguing singles have emerged over the last couple of years, including collaborations with Tame Impala and Remi Wolf, and an impressively slinky cover of Diana Ross’s Upside Down. Whatever he is currently up to, he remains a dependably fabulous live performer.
UK tour begins 25 March at O2 Academy Brixton, London
My Bloody Valentine
Robert Smith’s curation of this year’s Teenage Cancer Trust shows has led to a strong lineup – including Mogwai, Garbage, Manic Street Preachers, Wolf Alice and Nilüfer Yanya – but the pick might be this show, which brings My Bloody Valentine’s beautiful/deafening approach to live performance to the Royal Albert Hall – a noticeably smaller venue than they have been playing of late – with a special “stripped down” set by Chvrches as support.
27 March at Royal Albert Hall, London
Nicki Minaj – Pink Friday 3
Pink Friday 3 started life as an expanded edition of Minaj’s chart-topping and critically acclaimed 2023 album Pink Friday 2, before the rapper reconsidered, announcing the songs “too good … too iconic” to be consigned to the status of extra tracks on a deluxe set. So a new album it is: you have to hope it continues its predecessor’s pivot away from pop towards fierce, dark hip-hop, something Minaj is exceptionally good at.
Released 27 March
Yungblud
A jaunt around the UK’s arenas that had something of the victory lap about it, given that Dominic Harrison had a very good 2025: two No 1 albums – one the Britpop-influenced Idols, the other a collaboration with Aerosmith – three Grammy nominations, another edition of his own one-day festival Bludfest, and a show-stealing turn at what turned out to be Ozzy Osbourne’s final show, July’s Back to the Beginning gig, which seemed to win him an entirely new audience, considerably older than his usual gen Z fans.
UK tour begins 11 April at Sheffield Utilita Arena
Olivia Dean
Were it not for the complexities of chart rules, Olivia Dean’s Man I Need would have been No 1 for months (it was certainly the UK’s most-streamed track for weeks on end): evidence of how her second album, The Art of Loving, catapulted her into pop’s Premier League, the sole UK artist to make that leap in recent years. Live, she is an appealingly understated and relatable performer, albeit one blessed with an amazing voice and a succession of great pop-soul tracks.
UK tour begins 22 April at OVO Hydro, Glasgow
Rosalía
In a world in which pop music is supposed to cleave to the middle ground and present cautious listeners with more of the same, there’s something hugely buoying about the success of Rosalia’s album Lux: a global Top 10 hit that sounds nothing like the Spanish star’s previous work, but has managed to provoke a debate about whether or not its contents constitute classical music. Helmed by a striking live performer, its transition to the stage should be a treat.
On 5 and 6 May, London O2 Arena
Metallica spent 2025 touring North America with their M72 show, an intriguing approach to playing live for the umpteenth time in their career. They play stadiums in the round: those prepared to stump up the requisite dosh can get “snake pit” tickets that allow you to stand in the centre of the vast circular stage. In London, they are playing two shows, and promise completely different sets at each, as well as different support acts.
UK tour begins on 25 June at Glasgow Hampden Park
Ariana Grande
You couldn’t describe Ariana Grande’s arrival in the UK as a tour, exactly: she’s only playing London, although she is doing a fairly eye-popping run of 10 nights at the O2 Arena, testament to the continued appeal of her music despite a shift in emphasis towards acting in recent years. The dates come two years after the release of her R&B and trap-infused post-divorce opus Eternal Sunshine, the album she is ostensibly promoting, which was among the most-streamed albums globally in 2024.
15 August until 1 September, London O2 Arena
Classical music and opera
The Makropulos Affair
Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra’s semi-staged Janáček has become one of January’s most eagerly anticipated treats. If Katie Mitchell’s November staging for the Royal Ballet and Opera left you bemused, here is a chance to focus on the music, with Marlis Petersen making a rare UK appearance as the 300-year-old heroine, Emilia.
13 and 15 January, Barbican, London
The Great Wave
An ambitious and groundbreaking cross-cultural collaboration between Scotland and Japan brings the world premiere of Dai Fujikura and Harry Ross’s opera about artist Katsushika Hokusai and his woodblock print The Great Wave off Kanagawa to Scottish Opera. Stuart Stratford conducts the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, which will be enhanced with a Japanese shakuhachi-flute.
12 and 14 February at Theatre Royal, Glasgow; 19 and 21 February at Festival theatre, Edinburgh
Kurtág at 100
The Hungarian composer György Kurtág is 100 in February; tributes to the avant garde master and his exquisitely detailed and concentrated music feature in different seasons across the UK. Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson and cellist István Várdai join the Philharmonia for a concert at the South Bank that places Kurtág’s music alongside Bach and Schumann. In Birmingham, the CBSO and BCMG unite for a journey, compered by musicologist Paul Griffiths, into the composer’s life and music, while in April, Thomas Adès conducts the Hallé in a programme that includes his own Lieux retrouvés alongside Kurtág’s Double Concerto.
12 February at CBSO Centre, Birmingham; 1 March at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London; 23 April at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
Siegfried
Barrie Kosky and Antonio Pappano’s acclaimed Ring Cycle, with the despoliation of the natural world at its heart, continues with the third in Wagner’s tetralogy. Andreas Schager makes his Royal Opera debut as the brutish hero grappling with magic swords, cursed rings and a Valkyrie in a ring of fire. Christopher Maltman returns as the Wanderer, and Elisabet Strid as Brünnhilde.
17 March to 6 April, Royal Opera House, London
Aurora Orchestra: The Rite by Heart
The orchestra’s brilliant exploration of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, blending music, dance and storytelling, won five-star reviews at 2023’s Proms – and the Grand Prix at the Golden Prague international television festival. The ever-innovative group are reviving it for the Southbank Centre’s 75th birthday celebrations, or you can catch it at Snape Maltings.
11 April, Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh; and 16 April, Royal Festival Hall, London
The Flying Dutchman
Fast-rising Welsh director Jack Furness makes his debut with his home company and tackles his first Wagner opera with this new staging that then travels to Plymouth, Birmingham and Milton Keynes. Simon Bailey is the cursed hero, Emma Bell his Senta and Tomáš Hanus conducts.
Touring 16 April to 15 May, starting at Wales Millennium Centre
Abel Selaocoe’s Mohopolo/Ancestral Memory Weekend
The charismatic and engaging South African cellist celebrates the music of his homeland with a mini festival that aims to showcases the depth and diversity of South Africa’s musical landscape. Over four concerts, workshops and other informal events the music ranges from traditional Zulu music, Afro-psychedelic future pop, Afro-rave, amapiano and contemporary jazz.
23 to 26 April, Barbican, London
Wigmore Hall 125th anniversary festival
The intimate chamber music venue celebrates 125 years in world-class style with a two-week festival of 24 concerts (many broadcast on Radio 3) boasting a starry lineup of international performers. Highlights include soprano Lise Davidsen’s all-Schubert recital, pianists Igor Levit, Yunchan Lim and Alexandre Kantorow, Stockhausen’s Stimmung with London Voices, and Ian Bostridge and Piotr Anderszewski performing Schumann’s Dichterliebe.
25 May to 7 June, Wigmore Hall, London
Angel’s Bone
Chinese-American composer Du Yun won the 2017 Pulitzer prize for Music for her opera Angel’s Bone. The jury hailed it as a bold work “that integrates … a wide range of styles into a harrowing allegory for human trafficking in the modern world.” The BBC Philharmonic and English National Opera, in their first fully staged production in Manchester, give the UK premiere at the Aviva Studios in May.
May (dates TBC), Aviva Studios, Manchester
