FKA Twigs has been announced as the curator for Southbank’s Meltdown 2027, and there is also an inaugural localised Hometown Meltdown on the way to support grassroots venues across the country.
The singer, dancer and visual artist will take the reins for 11 days at the London multi-arts centre, and curate a run of performances at the 11-acre site between June 10 and 20.
As well as headlining one of the days herself, Twigs will create a line-up that reflects the diverse influences that shape her own sound, and bring together artists from across musical genres.
The past winner of NME’s Godlike Genius Award will become Meltdown’s 32nd curator, following on from huge names including David Bowie, Nick Cave, Patti Smith, Grace Jones, Christine and the Queens, Harry Styles, Nile Rodgers, Robert Smith, David Byrne, Yoko Ono, Anohni, Massive Attack, Little Simz and Jarvis Cocker.
“I am honoured and excited to be curating Meltdown at the Southbank Centre,” Twigs shared. “The potent artistic and cultural landscape in London has raised me from Croydon College, to performing in underground cabaret clubs, dancing till sunrise in warehouses on the docks and last year being lucky enough to sing my operatic songs in one of the largest arenas in London.”
FKA twigs performing at the NME Awards 2020. Credit: Andy Ford for NME
She continued: “The cultural and artistic clash in this city is like no other. Where cultures, sounds, stories and traditions from all over the world meet, collide and transform one another. I intend to bring you a slice of all that has raised me and continues to inspire me: celebrating the diversity, freedom and creative energy that I believe makes London one of the world’s great capitals of music and the arts.”
With the announcement, FKA Twigs joins Meltdown’s 2027 season, which already includes scheduled performances from pianist Lang Lang, rock icon Patti Smith and composer Philip Glass. More information about the line-up and tickets will be announced at a later date.
The first ever Hometown Meltdown is on the way too – a nationwide version of the London Meltdown festival, which will be taking place in grassroots music venues. Running between December 2026 through to March 2027, the festival will take place at six cities across the country and each span for two days.
In each city, celebrated artists from that area will curate and host programmes in grassroots venues, bringing together local artists alongside more established talent from elsewhere around the country.
Jamie Cullum, Kelly Lee Owens and The Selecter‘s Pauline Black have already been lined up as curators, and more details about the respective line-ups will be announced at a later date. Check out the line-up below.
The Hometown Meltdown curators and grassroots music venues are:
DECEMBER
12-13 –Kelly Lee Owens for Neuadd Ogwen in Bethesda, Wales
JANUARY
30-31 – Stewart Lee for The Cornish Bank in Falmouth, England
FEBRUARY
13-14 – Kathryn Joseph for Beat Generator in Dundee, Scotland
23-24 – Jamie Cullum for Chinnerys in Southend, England
MARCH
2-3 – Pauline Black for Peggy’s Skylight in Nottingham, England
25-26 – Rhoda Dakar for FORGE Warehouse in Sheffield, England
“Grassroots Music Venues are often overlooked in conversations about the cultural infrastructure for the UK, even though they provide access to incredible live music in well over 800 locations across the four nations,” said Beverley Whitrick, COO of Music Venue Trust.
“Not only is Hometown Meltdown an exciting project in terms of the curators, artists, venues and audiences it will bring together, but the Southbank Centre’s recognition and championing of these venues is a powerful statement about the music ecosystem. As the charity that works with GMVs day in and out, we are delighted to be a partner in this amazing project.”
Back in June, FKA Twigs shared a new single ‘On Your Mind’, featuring Lil Yachty – her first new music of 2026 and first since she dropped ‘EUSEXUA’ – NME’s Number Three album of 2025 – and its companion piece ‘EUSEXUA Afterglow’.
For Meltdown 2026, Harry Styles curated performances from Orlando Weeks, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, Soulwax, Bar Italia, Jon Hopkins, Dev Hynes, and more. The run began in June with a performance from Los Angeles’ Warpaint, marking their first gig in nearly two years.
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