Spotify have announced a new series of ‘Hometown’ shows featuring intimate gigs from Jorja Smith, Nemzzz and Beabadoobee.
The shows will see the three artists return to the communities where they began making music for one-night-only performances this September.
All three coincide with new album campaigns for the artists in question. Smith’s third record ‘What Are The Odds‘ is coming out on Friday (August 21), while Nemzzz will release ‘Locked In’ on September 4. Beabadoobee’s ‘Pylon‘, meanwhile, arrives on September 18.
Smith will open the series in her hometown of Walsall on September 6, before Nemzzz plays in Manchester on September 12. Beabadoobee will then close the run in London on September 17, the day before ‘Pylon’ is released.
Spotify have said that selected top listeners for each of the artists will be invited to attend the shows. There will be no public ticket sale, although concert films will premiere exclusively on Spotify in the weeks following the gigs.
Spotify will also be working with the artists on community-led initiatives to help support young people in their respective hometowns.
“Walsall is where I first started writing and recording music as a teenager,” Smith has said. “It’s where my love of music began and the people, experiences and sense of community there continue to influence my creativity today.”
Nemzzz added: “I’ve always made a point of celebrating Manchester and representing where I’m from, so getting to do Hometown with Spotify feels like a natural extension of that.”
Beabadoobee has said: “London has always felt like home to me, it’s where I started finding my people, making music, playing tiny shows and figuring out what I wanted to do, so Hometown feels really special.”
Smith is releasing ‘What Are The Odds’ on the same day that she co-headlines All Points East in London with Tems. In a four-star review of the record, NME wrote: ‘What Are The Odds’ is Smith at her most comfortable, loosely embodying her emotional state. All that she’s been, and all that she will be – the mess, desire, regret and state of armour she’s built across her ten years in the headlights. It’s endearingly charming, brutally honest and ultimately fun. Now able to enjoy the catharsis that comes with perspective, Smith comes of age once again on this album, this time bold in her instincts and ability to laugh at herself along the way.
Beabadoobee, meanwhile, debuted the title track of ‘Pylon’ in stripped-back form at Red Rocks earlier this month, and she will support the album with the ‘Powerlines’ tour, her first arena headline run, including shows in Glasgow, Cardiff, Manchester and London this November. Find any remaining tickets here.
