PJ Harvey leads WOMADelaide’s first line-up reveal for 2025
WOMADelaide has announced the first 47 artists in its 2025 line-up, including English singer and multi-instrumentalist PJ Harvey, fado star Mariza, and 47SOUL – the Palestinian band at the centre of controversy when they were ‘uninvited’ this year.
PJ Harvey will make her WOMADelaide debut with her four-piece band on the festival’s opening night, March 7, as part of her first Australian tour in eight years. Organisers say the show will include tracks from the signer’s 10th studio album, I Inside the Old Year Dying, as well as her 30-year back-catalogue.
The indie-rock star first came to Australia for the Big Day Out in 2001 and has twice won the UK’s prestigious Mercury Prize, as well as scoring eight nominations for both the Grammy and Brit awards.
The tour comes on the back of a number of summer festival appearances by Harvey and her band in Europe, including at Glastonbury, where music website MOJO described the pinnacle of the singer’s performance as “spine-tingling”, saying she exuded – by turns – “epic sensuality”, “quiet drama” and “thrilling ’90s snarl”.
Harvey’s live show was developed with UK theatre director Ian Rickson and a team of creatives that includes a fashion designer as well as set and lighting designers.
Also certain to give a spine-tingling live performance is Mariza, who will be touring nationally in 2025 through Arts Projects Australia. She is considered one of the leading contemporary performers of the melancholic Portuguese singing form fado and previously performed at WOMADelaide in 2007.
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Mariza said Australia holds a special place in her heart, “and returning to this distant yet so close country through music is always a deeply personal moment”.
“The Australian audience has a unique sensitivity, and this tour will be a journey through the soul, where fado and the deepest emotions intertwine. I want each person present to feel every word, every melody, as if we were sharing life stories. That’s what music is – an embrace between the one who sings and the one who listens – and I can’t wait for us to share those very special moments together.”
Today’s announcement from WOMADelaide says that “after performing at the 2016 festival to huge acclaim”, Palestinian band 47SOUL will return in 2025 “with their message of equality for the world”.
47SOUL’s sound draws on hip-hop, electronica and R&B influences, melded with traditional music from the Levantine region of the Middle East. The band, which formed in Jordan in 2013, were at the centre of controversy earlier this year after posting a statement on Instagram saying WOMADelaide had rescinded an offer for them to perform in 2024 because of safety concerns amid the protests taking place in Australia over the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Their most recent social media posts feature a call to “stop the war on Gaza and Lebanon”.
Asked whether there were any safety concerns about their appearance next year, a WOMADelaide spokesperson told InReview: “It was always the intention to program 47SOUL for 2025, and we’re thrilled to see them return to the Botanic Park since their last visit in 2016. Patron and artist safety is our uttermost priority, and as always, procedures will be in place to ensure a safe and welcoming environment for all.”
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47SOUL have been included in the 2025 WOMADelaide line-up.
Other international highlights in the first 2025 WOMADelaide line-up announcement include Goran Bregović and his sprawling Wedding & Funeral Band, who fuse Balkan folk, rock, and classical influences in a full-throttle high-energy show; Berlin-based pianist, composer, producer and performer Nils Frahm; British musician and producer Nitin Sawhney (a late withdrawal from this year’s line-up after he was unable to travel); Trinidad & Tobago reggae singer Queen Omega, and Japanese taiko drum ensemble O.TA.I.KO ZA MYOJIN.
Among the strong contingent of Australian musicians in the program the Andrew Gurruwiwi Band, an eight-piece funk band from a remote community in North-East Arnhem Land; Bangarra Dance Theatre, with a new cross-cultural collaboration titled The Light Inside; multi-ARIA-nominated blues and roots singer Emily Wurramara; First Nations hip-hop trio 3%, and PNG-born electronic neo-soul, gospel and pop artist Ngaiire.
“WOMADelaide is when Adelaide throws its arms around the world to welcome, share, discover and celebrate music, arts and dance, and today’s announcement of 47 groups from 28 countries demonstrates why it truly is the world’s festival,” director Ian Scobie said in a statement.
The Botanic Park site was redesigned in 2024 following concerns about overcrowding around the main stages the previous year, with retail stalls – dubbed the WoMarkets – relocated to Plane Tree Drive to open up more space in the middle of the park. Today’s announcement confirms that the stalls will return to the new location in 2025.
Off stage, France’s Yoann Bourgeois Art Company will present a nightly performance titled The unreachable suspension point, which straddles audio-visual art, dance and theatre with an installation featuring a revolving staircase and trampoline on which dancers explore “playfulness in art and weightlessness, while spiralling through life and space”.
The next program announcement for the March 7-10 festival will be in November.
Yoann Bourgeois Art Company’s The unreachable suspension point. Photo: Geraldine Aresteanu
Artists announced so far:
3% (AUS)
47SOUL (Palestine/Jordan)
Ana Carla Maza (Cuba)
Andrew Gurruwiwi Band (AUS)
Bala Desejo (Brazil)
Bangarra Dance Theatre – The Light Inside (AUS)
Bonny Light Horseman (USA)
Chris Kamu’ana Rohoimae – Pacific Break winner (Solomon Islands)
Cie Paris Benares – Chamôh (Camel) (France)
Delgres (France)
DJ Paulette (UK)
Dream Engine – Heliosphere (UK)
Duo Ruut (Estonia)
Durand Jones & The Indications (USA)
Ela Minus (Colombia)
Eleanor Jawurlngali – (AUS)
Elsy Wameyo (Kenya)
Emily Wurramara – (AUS)
Etran de l’Aïr (Niger)
Goran Bregović & His Wedding & Funeral Band (Serbia)
Hewa Rwanda (Rwanda/Senegal)
John Grant (USA)
The Joy (South Africa)
Khruangbin (USA)
Lindigo (Réunion)
The Lofty Mountain Band (AUS)
Majnun (Senegal)
The Mande Spirit (AUS)
Mariza (Portugal)
Miss Kanina (AUS)
Ngaiire (PNG/AUS)
Nils Frahm (Germany)
Nitin Sawhney (UK)
Norsicaa (UK/AUS)
O.TA.I.KO ZA MYOJIN (Japan)
PJ Harvey (UK)
Queen Omega (Trinidad & Tobago)
Restless Dance Theatre – Seeing Through Darkness (AUS)
Satish Vyas & U Rajesh (India)
Shabaka (UK)
Silent Observers (AUS)
Sun Ra Arkestra (USA)
Talisk (Scotland)
Trio da Kali (Mali)
UPK Project (AUS)
Wrong Way Up (South Sudan/AUS)
Yoann Bourgeois Art Company – The unreachable suspension point (France)