Roskilde Festival – 29 june – 2 july 2022 – Roskilde, Dennmark
The music programme for RF50 is packed with new voices, attitudes, acts from all over the world and a wealth of diverse musical expressions, both among the headliners and the vast undergrowth of artists. Roskilde Festival will return this summer with a cornucopia of concerts.
Today’s announcement of 92 new music acts from 31 countries is not only the biggest release in the festival’s history.
The 134 announced acts in the 2022 lineup are also a testament to 2022 being the year when 130,000 participants can finally explore Roskilde Festival’s cornucopia of international headliners, forward-thinking debutants, activist art, strong communities and unexpected cultural trends from across the globe.
The top of the poster is dominated by solid, young artists
Post Malone is one of the new acts we’re adding to the lineup. The 26-year-old artist is among the most requested among the Roskilde crowd. No wonder why. Post Malone is an intriguing artist because he is impossible to pigeonhole. He has a punk-rock energy and a trailer-park appearance – and musically, he draws on both hip-hop and pop music. The American artist appeals across generations with huge hits like “Rockstar”, “Sunflower”, “Better Now” and “I Fall Apart”.
Megan Thee Stallion also joins the headliners. The 27-year-old rapper is used to stealing headlines. For instance, when she was listed named by Time Magazine as one of the most influential people in the world. Her debut album Good News was indeed good news and a major hit, and she has since featured on bangers by the likes of Maroon 5, Lil Nas X and the South Korean boy band BTS. At the BET award ceremony for black artists in 2021, she took home the biggest number of awards.
Hip-hop offers vulnerability, attitude and party atmosphere
The lineup is packed with sharp-edged hip-hop in various expressions. Out of London, Little Simz has positioned herself as one of the most innovative voices in rap today with vulnerability and storytelling embedded in a unique expression. Her 2021 album Sometime I Might Be Introvert was named ‘Album of the Year’ on numerous end-of-year lists.
We’re also looking forward to welcoming hip-hop’s most successful twin brothers Rae Sremmurd who dish up festive trap rap while Polo G combines drill from his Chicago hometown with contemplativeness and party rap. Moor Mother transplants poems about social issues such as the Black struggle, female struggle, police violence etc. to a mix of rap and spoken word in an experimental soundscape. She is also the front figure in the free-jazz ensemble Irreversible Entanglements where her words bring the same kind of heat. Another non-conforming type of hip-hop can be found with MC Yallah & Debmaster, a Ugandan rapper and a French producer who toys with fragments of sound and towering energy. They are represented by Nyege Nyege Tapes, a Ugandan label and artistic hub that works to promote diversity in both sound, gender and nationality.
Solid rock names stand out
The New Yorkers in The Strokes return to Denmark and the Orange Stage. The band has not been in Denmark since they last played at Roskilde Festival in 2011 when the half-Danish lead singer Julian Casablanca rehearsed a little Danish language from the stage. Now, The Strokes finally get a chance to present the excellent songs from their 2020 album The New Abnormal, supplemented with generous picks from the back catalogue.
The godfather of hard rock and the angelic voice of bluegrass Robert Plant & Alison Krauss can finally stand side by side at Roskilde Festival. They have performed here before, however with their own respective bands. Now, we can bring together the two musicians who first won over the music world with their Raising Sand album from 2007 which won so many US Grammy awards. After 15 years of focus on their respective solo careers, Plant and Krauss returned in 2021 with a new collaborative record. Two voices have rarely sounded better together than these two!
Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead are the main forces in the new rock band The Smile who will have a Danish premiere at this year’s Roskilde Festival. Unlike other their other side projects, in which they have worked with soundtracks and electronic music, this new band has a full focus on a vital rock expression.
At the harder end of the genre spectrum, you’ll find genre-melting metal with bands like Amenra, John Cxnnor, Konvent, Kollaps and Old Man Gloom. For faster and more punk-flavoured music, you should look towards Turnstile, Zulu, ACXDC and Jimmy Eat World.
Bringing together the world
We want to bring the world together again at Roskilde Festival. Despite the constraints the pandemic has imposed on mobility so far, our ambition has been not to limit ourselves in our programming. Therefore, you will notice countries from all over the globe represented in the lineup.
More specifically, 31 countries are represented in today’s announcement. This means that you can experience Cuban funk star Cimafunk and the Pakistani neoclassical siren Arooj Aftab. You can also meet the Korean orchestra Ak Dan Gwang Chil who plays shamanistic ritual music with a contemporary touch, and Brazilian master guitarist Kiko Dinucci who is inspired by both bossanova and punk rock. You can also hear Taiwanese act Meuko! Meuko! who produces a peculiar type of deconstructed club music while Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara presents an enchanting mix of pop and blues. Nakibembe Xylophone Troupe hails from Uganda and plays the perhaps wildest instrument featured at this year’s festival: a giant Ugandan wooden xylophone which is operated by eight people!
From Benin comes the group Star Feminine Band, consisting of girls aged 10 to 17 who sing about female genital mutilation, equality and female empowerment. They sing in six different languages and incorporate at least as many musical styles, which will make your head spin.
The acts above are just a selection. There are many more corners of the world, tastes and styles to visit musically.
Protest music in all kinds of shapes
As is the case with several acts above, the 2022 lineup reflects lots of trends in the world. Several artists in the lineup have strong agendas, both in and outside of the music.
Ashnikko is a pop provocateur whose style and music scream in protest against the norms: the heteropatriarchy, fashion, sexual norms and the music industry. The English punk band IDLES has practically become British standard-bearers of bombastic music that sings for the oppressed. Nadia Tehran uses her melting pot of synth-pop, avant-garde and punk energy to rage against patriarchy and racism while Backxwash mixes unusual metal and industrial samples in her brusque hip-hop that explores issues such as religion, sexuality and gender.
British producer Loraine James pushes the boundaries with her electronic music which is closely linked to the artist’s experience as a young, Black, queer woman. Also from England comes Employed to Serve who play aggressive metalcore that screams for change in a world marked by a socio-economic shitstorm created by the older generations.
