THE FIRST HEADLINER OF POHODA 2023 IS JAMIE XX
Organizers of Pohoda Festival announced five more names of artists who will perform at Trenčín Airport in 2023. One of them is the first headliner of the coming year – British producer Jamie xx. He is joined by SOFI TUKKER, Sampa the Great, Vintage Trouble, and Dry Cleaning.
21. December 2022
Jamie xx probably needs no introduction, or suffice it to say that he is a member of the cult band The xx. Jamie xx – a visionary of the electronic scene, an excellent producer with a flair for progressive beats, a talent for sampling vocals, and also an excellent remixer. In 2010 you could hear him at Pohoda with the band The xx (also in a separate set), and in 2023 he will come to Trenčín Airport as an equally famous name to present his more danceable and extroverted self. "I am proud that we have Jamie xx in our Pohoda programme. He returns to us thirteen years after the great concert of The xx and his set in 2010. A lot has happened since then – we can look forward to a great, top-class party right on the first festival night on the main stage," says Michal Kaščák, Pohoda Festival director, about his performance.
With his debut album In Colour (2015), Jamie xx was nominated for both the Grammy Award and the prestigious Mercury Prize. Pitchfork magazine gave the album an extremely high rating and declared it "Best New Music". He has produced music for artists such as Frank Ocean, Alicia Keys, Drake, and Oliver Sim, who is another member of The xx. He remixed songs for Radiohead, Florence + The Machine, Adele, Four Tet, and of course The xx. This year he released two singles – LET'S DO IT AGAIN in April and KILL DEM in September, premiered as BBC Radio 1's Clara Amfo's “Hottest Record in the World“.
Besides the headliner, Pohoda Festival director Michal Kaščák also announced other new names on the Rádio_FM broadcast. Fans of dance music can look forward to the band SOFI TUKKER. The American duo mixes house, dance-pop, and Brazilian music. Their debut single Drinkee and album Treehouse were both nominated for Grammy Awards. In April 2022, they released the album WET TENNIS (When Everyone Tries to Evolve, Nothing Negative is Safe), the follow-up to their album Treehouse that continues their story and growth – so far they have managed to reach over a billion streams. "SOFI TUKKER were supposed to play at Pohoda 2019, but that did not work out due to an injury. I am happy that they will come in the summer of 2023 – their concerts are full of unique and rare positive energy. It will definitely be an extremely successful party," recommends Michal Kaščák.
Pohoda 2023 will welcome one of Australia's most popular rap artists – Sampa the Great. Sampa the Great is a Zambian-born, Botswana-raised, and until recently Australia-based rapper. Now she lives in Zambia where she not only creates but also supports local artists. Sampa The Great’s first two albums, Birds and the BEE9 (2017) and The Return (2019), won the Australian Music Prize (similar to Britain’s Mercury Music Prize and Canada’s Polaris Prize). Juror Mikey Cahill explains: “We’ll still be playing this 50 years in the future; you and your kids will be too.” Her second album, The Return, was released by the prestigious Ninja Tune label, while Bandcamp declared her second album the “Album of the Year”.
Rock and roll will also be represented by the American band Vintage Trouble. The quartet plays rousing rock, soulful blues, and R&B grooves. Their work has been praised by the New York Times, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, Billboard, and Rolling Stone magazine.
Dry Cleaning are the last of the names announced so far. Pohoda on the Ground visitors had the opportunity to hear this British post-punk band when they played five concerts in five days. The NME ranked them among the 100 most important new names of 2020, and their debut, New Long Leg, rocketed among the top-rated albums released this year. The band is known for using the spoken word in lieu of sung vocals. Just this October, they released their second album, Stumpwork. Frontwoman and singer Florence Shaw showed a high degree of spontaneity in the studio, as many of the lyrics were improvised during the recording: "I wrote about the things that preoccupied me over this period, like loss, masculinity, feminism, my mum, being separated from my partner for little stretches in the lockdown, lust.”
These five artists join thirty-one other musicians announced by the organizers in early December. Among the biggest names in the first wave of announcements are British bands Wet Leg, shame, Yard Act, Genesis Owusu from Australia, and Sweden's Viagra Boys. A complete overview of the announced performers for Pohoda 2023 can be found here.
Pohoda Festival will take place from July 6 to 8, 2023 at Trenčín Airport.
Pohoda 2023 Spotify playlist
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