Spotify's hugely successful Who We Be Live is set to return this year, following its sold out inaugural show at Alexandra Palace in November 2017. Who We Be will return in 2018 with two exciting shows: The O2 Academy Birmingham on 14th June, and Alexandra Palace in November, presented by Live Nation Entertainment.
Who We Be promises to be a celebration of the best of urban music street sounds from the U.K. and beyond, all under one roof, inspired by the Spotify playlist of the same name. This year, for the first time, Spotify will be taking Who We Be to Birmingham, with an incredible line up including Jaykae, Mabel, MIST, Ms Banks, Sneakbo and Yungen.
The inaugural Who We Be Live sold out
Alexandra Palace last November with performances from the likes of Giggs, Dizzee Rascal, J Hus and Cardi B. Receiving glowing reviews from fans and media alike, it firmly cemented the reputation of Spotify's Who We Be playlist as the pre-eminent destination for showcasing the hottest urban tracks among dedicated music fans.
Who We Be is curated by Spotify's in-house urban music team, led by Senior Editor Austin Daboh, and is one of Spotify's most listened-to playlists in the U.K., with over 250,000 followers.
For the first time Who We Be Live will be presented by Live Nation Entertainment, the world's leading live entertainment company. The event marks an exciting milestone for both Spotify and Live Nation Entertainment working together to continue their unrivalled investment and support within U.K. urban music. Spotify has played a major part in promoting new rap, grime and urban talent, with artists such as Yungen finding great success with 'Bestie', which was first playlisted on Who We Be. The track then progressed through Spotify's playlist system onto Hot Hits UK, which resulted in 'Bestie' becoming a major international hit. Live Nation Entertainment continues to support emerging talent through its concert and festival divisions particularly across established brands such as Wireless, Lovebox, Parklife and Reading & Leeds.
Austin Daboh, Senior Editor at Spotify, said: "Spotify launched Who We Be Live in the UK last November and the response was phenomenal - from the artists, managers, labels, and most importantly, the fans. We knew we had to go even bigger for 2018, and we have! We are so excited to be taking this event to Birmingham, where there is a such a vibrant music scene, as well as bringing it back home to Ally Pally in November."
Sam Bush, President of U.K. Touring at Live Nation, said: "We are excited to be working in partnership with Spotify on Who We Be Live. This is an event curated for the fans and we have some of the most promising and relevant artists performing in both Birmingham and London later in the year."
From 10am GMT on Wednesday 25th April Spotify will be emailing fans of the artists performing, followers of the Who We Be playlist in the UK, and O2 customers, with an opportunity to purchase presale tickets.
Live Nation pre-sale tickets will be available at 10am GMT on
Thursday 26th April. General tickets will be on sale at 10am on Friday 27th April from www.ticketmaster.co.uk.
Who We Be in London will be returning to
Alexandra Palace in November, promising to be even bigger and better than last year's sell out event. The full line-up will be announced at a later date.
#WhoWeBe
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The artists
Jaykae is a British grime MC and rapper from the Small Heath area of Birmingham. He put out a number of independent releases - including the A Bite to Eat EP in 2013 and the Froggy EP (recorded with fellow grime artist Dapz OTM) in 2014 -- before becoming prominent in 2016 with the single "Toothache." The rapper gained more exposure when he made a guest appearance at one of grime heavyweight Stormzy's gigs in 2017, and "Toothache," went on to appear in an episode of the 50 Cent-produced crime-drama series Power the same year. 2017 also saw the release of Jaykae's debut full-length, Where Have You Been? which featured the track "Every Country," produced by London-based rapper and producer Skepta.
Fast-becoming an international star, Mabel 2017's breakthrough single, 'Finders Keepers', grew across several months into one of the biggest songs of the year. Holding five weeks in the UK Top 10, Mabel was also nominated for the BRITs Critics' Choice Award; establishing herself as one of the most exciting female singers on the scene.
2016 proved to be a break-through year for Birmingham native MIST. Becoming a social media sensation, he appeared on Charlie Sloth's 'Fire in the Booth' BBC 1Xtra Show and released his successful EP - M I S to the T. Known for his Punjabi lyrics in 'Karlas Back' and quality visuals in 'Ain't the Same', MIST continues to raise the bar. Having a sold-out UK tour at the start of 2017, he performed at Koko, London and Manchester O2 Ritz. Later, featuring on the cover of LinkUp TV's Issue 2 magazine meant his recognition on the scene was widely acknowledged.
South London native, Ms Banks, began rapping aged 11 and has collaborated with the likes of JME, Stormzy,
Tinie Tempah and Stefflon Don. Her (now legendary) freestyling on Fire In The Booth back in 2016 cemented her as one of the most exciting up and coming talents in UK Grime and even earned a shout out from her idol Nikki Minaj. With her latest EP due to land any minute, and labels biting at her heels, 2018 is set to be an exciting year for Ms Banks.
Born in Brixton, Sneakbo quickly shot to fame with a successful YouTube channel and gained support from global talent including Drake, who said the rapper inspired tracks on his Take Care album. Already championed by tastemakers across the board, Sneakbo's 2014 single 'Dr Who' got off to a flying start. After a worldwide premiere on the 1Xtra show hosted by MistaJam, the single was selected to be Zane Lowe's 'Hottest Record In The World' with wider support from the likes of DJ Target and Charlie Sloth. Sneakbo has since had a number of Top 40 singles, performed at major festivals including Wireless and recently launched his debut album, Brixton, in March this year. With support from the likes of rap superstar Drake citing him as his favourite UK rapper, Sneakbo is proving to be every bit the global star.
Like others on the London rap scene, Yungen started writing at a young age. His debut mixtape, The New Era Project, was released independently in 2009. It wasn't until his 2014 debut album
Project Black & Red, however, that he started to gain traction. As a result, he was nominated Best
Newcomer at the MOBO Awards 2015 and shortlisted on BBC Radio 1Xtra's One to Watch list in 2016, heralding what would become a breakthrough year for the artist. Since then Yungen has remained one of the most exciting talents in the UK.
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