The Splendour in the Grass 2023 lineup has been revealed with Lizzo joined by Australian exclusive shows from Flume and Mumford & Sons, plus Lewis Capaldi, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, J Balvin and more.
Splendour in the Grass has revealed its mammoth 2023 lineup with US singer, rapper and flautist Lizzo joined by Australian electronic heavyweight Flume, English folk superstars Mumford & Sons, Scottish pop sensation Lewis Capaldi, US indie rock legends Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Aussie hip hop pioneers Hilltop Hoods, Colombian Prince of Reggaeton J Balvin, British pop-rock chart-topper Sam Fender, critically-acclaimed punk rockers IDLES, renowned hip hop artist Little Simz, raw and explosive rapper Slowthai, as well as Swedish grunge-pop breakout star Tove Lo.
The star-studded lineup is coming to Ngarindjin / North Byron Parklands on July 21, 22 and 23 – with onsite camping accessible from Wednesday, July 19 – for the festival’s 21st birthday celebrations, marking two decades of providing some of the best festival lineups ever witnessed in Australia.
Splendour in the Grass 2023
- Lizzo, Flume, Mumford & Sons, Lewis Capaldi and more
- July 21, 22 and 23 (camping from July 19 onwards)
- Ngarindjin / North Byron Parklands
- Tickets and more information here.
Keep up with the latest music news, features, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
Lizzo
Every once in a while, an artist changes not only music, but culture as well. Lizzo has done both, shifting the sound, soul, and spirit of popular music and culture with a series of definitive history-making smashes. Lizzo has been making waves in the music industry since the release of her platinum-certified debut album, Cuz I Love You, in 2019. The album featured hits such as Truth Hurts, which made history by becoming the first song by a black solo female R&B singer to reach #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 since 2012.
Lizzo’s hugely adored second full-length offering Special is her biggest, boldest, and brightest revolution thus far: bursting with chunky disco-funk beats designed to make you move. Special’s spirited, charismatic anthems are her most adventurous yet. The album saw Lizzo receive four nominations at the 65th Annual GRAMMY Awards recently, with monumental lead single About Damn Time taking out the coveted title of Record Of The Year.
Flume
One of Australia’s largest contemporary musical exports, Flume has conquered festival stages across the globe. He’s one of Australia’s biggest-selling international touring artists, with hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide witnessing his stadium headline shows. His latest record Palaces follows his 2019 Grammy-nominated mixtape Hi This Is Flume, and 2016’s studio album Skin. That release hit number one on the ARIA charts, eight on the US Billboard 200, and won Flume a Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Album. His massively successful self-titled debut landed back in 2012.
Mumford & Sons
Hit after hit after hit – that’s one way to describe Mumford & Sons. Their sophomore record, Babel, was the fastest-selling rock album of the decade. But after touring for years behind their Grammy-nominated debut, Sigh No More, and its chart-topping follow-up, Babel, the band grew fatigued of their rootsy sound. To remedy this, they started experimenting with new instrumentation. By the end of 2013’s Babel tour, the band was playing around with electric guitars in sound checks, jamming out on Radiohead songs. Wilder Mind marked a conspicuous shift from the folk instrumentation of Sigh No More and 2012’s Babel into the world of electricity, before returning to their folk-rock roots appears to be a priority on this record, highlighted by ‘Beloved’ while country can also be heard throughout Delta, with Rose of Sharon at the fore – another admirable outfit from Mumford & Sons, who well and truly solidified themselves within the folk-rock frame.
Lewis Capaldi
Lewis Capaldi – the singer-songwriter who has brought us instant hits like Bruises and Rush – has catapulted into the spotlight. Capaldi made his eagerly awaited return in September with new single Forget Me, marking his third consecutive UK No. 1 hit and giving fans a taste of new music to come. The new record will follow his 2019 full-length debut, Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent, which featured the hit singles Someone You Loved and Before You Go. Capaldi has a genuine humility about him, one that’s translated into his heart-wrenching and unyielding music. What’s brilliant about Capaldi is that he sings with the experience and soul of someone four times his age, making it sound like he’s lived a life ten times over.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Fronting the Yeah Yeah Yeahssince the band’s beginning in 2000, Karen O became known for her bizarre and wild onstage antics. 2003’s Fever to Tellis what many bands wish for from a first record, gaining both critical and commercial success. ‘Man’ “I got a man who makes me wanna kill” or ‘Tick’ “tick tick tick time tick tick tick tick tick tick…” Track after track is a forceful punk holler from a confident and inspiring Karen O. Any live performance from the band is worth a watch. Karen O and her wonderful trio are one of the most talented and enduring rock bands of the millennium, with a back catalogue so varied that their live shows take you on an emotional journey. It’s all tied together with Karen’s remarkable vocals, which are at home dishing gospel refrains as belting out rock anthems.
Hilltop Hoods
It’s been over 20 years but these guys are just as dynamic as ever. Among Hilltop’s credits include 10 ARIA awards, six number-one albums; the most streamed Australian artist on Spotify two years running; sold out arena tours and over 60 platinum accreditations, just to name a few. Watching the trio in this environment serves as a reminder of their important place not just in Australian hip hop, but Australian music in general. Their shows are a well-oiled machine; the setlist taking the audience through a mammoth chunk of a career that rounded out its second decade in 2019.
J Balvin
The Prince of Reggaeton, J Balvin is one of the highest-selling Latin artists of all time, with a tidy 50 million single and album sales on his balance sheet, with headlining slots at the likes of Coachella, Tomorrowland, and Lollapalooza bringing him to Splendour in the Grass. The Colombian songwriter and record producer’s last four records have all hit the top 15 on the Billboard Hot 100, while his collaborations with Beyonce, Cardi B, Bad Bunny, Skrillex and Ed Sheeran – proving his incredible versatility and in-demand talents as a recording artist – have all topped charts around the world.
Sam Fender
2021 saw UK artist Sam Fender catapult to rockstar status with the release of his massive album Seventeen Going Under, which received a BRIT Award, a UK #1 album and triple j Feature Album, while also playing to sold-out crowds in arenas across the UK, Europe and US. Known for crafting music that punches straight at the gut, Sam Fender was born and raised in the northeastern English town of North Shields. If his 2022 Glastonbury set is anything to go by, you’re not going to want to miss this opportunity to see him showcase his era-defining sound on the Splendour in the Grass lineup in July.
IDLES
The ability of IDLES (frontman Joe Talbot, guitarist Lee Kiernan, drummer Jon Beavis and bassist Adam Devonshire) to juxtapose beauty and rage with humour and drama has always been an intriguing mix. Their music is guttural, loud, aggressive and sarcastic, but it’s also empathetic, self-aware and tender – they’re a hard band not to like. Their songs are simple and direct, set to rampage the Splendour in the Grass lineup with Talbot responsible for some of the best verses in UK punk history. This isn’t good-time, radio-friendly rock, but it’s just as aspirational and celebratory as anything heard in the charts.
Little Simz
While the likes of Cardi B and Lizzo have been dominating the American charts, it’s the UK where Little Simz emerged as one of the most exciting female wordsmiths of her generation, a reputation she’ll now bring to the Splendour in the Grass lineup. Rising to fame off the back of her early mixtapes, Simz is now deep into a career most artists can only dream of. Simz has come a long way both as a performer and a lyricist, with her willingness to tackle issues affecting her personally and society at large a key to her appeal. Sometimes I Might Be Introvert was hailed as one of the best records of 2021 and the acclaimed rapper and actress already has No Thank You as a mammoth follow up.
Slowthai
UK Grammy-nominated rapper Slowthai has absorbed his fans into a wired tongue-in-cheek world of politically aimed and hyper-energised rhymes, with his explosive and at-times highly controversial live shows a testament to the passion the critically-acclaimed rapper will bring to the Splendour in the Grass lineup. With leftist themes that build on a troubled youth in the UK, audiences that witnessed his show-stealing recent sets as part of Laneway Festival will understand what we mean when we say you rarely get to witness such an aggressive and captivating live presence on a festival stage.
Tove Lo
Grammy-nominated Swedish electro-pop artist Tove Lo is a multi-platinum-selling artist famed for her collab with Flume, Say It, as well as No One Dies From Love – which racked up 40 million global streams – and How Long which featured in the season two soundtrack of Euphoria. Tove Lo has performed to rapturous audiences at the likes of Lollapalooza and wowed audiences at her last Splendour In The Grass appearance, also performing with Flume at the ARIA Awards, and supporting Katy Perry on her Australian and New Zealand arena Prismatic Tour. As a songwriter behind-the-scenes, she’s also penned music for everyone from Lorde to Ellie Goulding to Zara Larsson.
Tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday April 14. Find out the latest info here.
