André 3000 has been confirmed to play Øya Festival 2024.
The rapper and flautist recently dropped his surprise record ‘New Blue Sun‘, his first new album in 17 years, comprised primarily of experimental flute music. Now, the former OutKast musician will join the Øya Festival lineup to play through ‘New Blue Sun’ with a full live band on August 8.
Other acts confirmed so far include Queens Of The Stone Age, The Smile, The National RAYE, Arca, Astrid S and Holly Humberstone. Tickets are currently on sale – find yours here.
It will be one of the few dates André plans to visit Europe – so far, he’s also joining We Out Here 2024 alongside Sampha, Corinne Bailey Rae and more.
NME visited Øya last year and gave it four stars. We singled out closing headliner Sigrid‘s excellent set as emblematic of the entire festival: “a beautiful, intimate, forward-thinking and friendly setting for good times, world firsts, and a taste of tomorrow from one of the music capitals of the world. Øya effortlessly just gets festivals right, every time.”
André surprised the world when he revealed ‘New Blue Sun’s unconventional song titles, with fans reacting to them as “weird” and “emo”.
He also opened up about the reason why he made an ambient flute album, and not a rap album: “Sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap because I don’t have anything to talk about in that way,” André said. “I’m 48 years old. And not to say that age is a thing that dictates what you rap about, but in a way it does.”
“And things that happen in my life, like, what are you talking about? ‘I got to go get a colonoscopy’. What are you rapping about? ‘My eyesight is going bad’. You can find cool ways to say it, but….”
Rappers such as Lil Wayne have reacted to André’s comments, calling it “depressing”: “I have everything to talk about,” he continued. “I thought that may be a downfall of me staying in it because at our age you may hear what’s going on and feel I’m so out of that. I ain’t about to drop nothing. So that’s why I say I don’t listen. I just go in my little hole, I love what I do, put it out, and hopefully, we swing for the fences, man.”
André has since teased new music with the mysterious London collective SAULT: “I’ve hung out [with them] in the studio here in LA before. You know, we messed around and played a lot of music.
“But we’re hoping to do something a little bit more substantial, soon.”
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