Meltdown Festival: Last News

Chaka Khan has revealed the reason why she rejected Glastonbury‘s invite to perform for this year’s legends slot.Khan was reportedly in the running to play this year’s coveted legends slot at Glastonbury – which ultimately went to Shania Twain – before turning it down. Now, Khan has opened up about why she passed on performing this year.Chaka Khan, who has been hard at work curating this year’s Meltdown Festival in June, told The Sun that she ultimately passed on Glastonbury due to her Meltdown commitments: “They did approach me but I can’t because of this.”However, the icon hasn’t fully closed the door on performing for a future legends slot at Glastonbury, telling The Sun that she “would love” that.Glastonbury 2024 will take place from Wednesday June 26 through to Sunday June 30 at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset.

Chaka Khan’s Meltdown Festival, which is taking place in June this year. The annual contemporary music festival is set to take place between June 14 and June 23 and the Southbank Centre confirmed in January that Khan would be curating this year’s edition. Khan herself will be playing two shows at the festival, including a greatest hits set on the opening night at the Royal Festival Hall, and a performance of her 2004 album ‘ClassiKhan’ on the closing night, where she will be joined by the Black-led Nu Civilisation Orchestra.

Grace Jones debuted a pair of new tracks at Meltdown Festival, which she curated this year.The singer played ‘Born Black’ and ‘War No More’ on Friday (June 10), opening the 27th edition of the festival held at the Southbank Centre in London.Among the new tracks were performances of classics including ‘Slave To The Rhythm’ and ‘Pull Up To The Bumper’. The Jamaican artist also covered a number of songs including Roxy Music‘s ‘Love Is The Drug and Iggy Pop‘s ‘Nightclubbing’.You can watch her debut new songs and see the full setlist below.Grace Jones’ setlist at Meltdown 2022 [via SetlistFM]:01. ‘Nightclubbing’ (Iggy Pop cover)02. ‘Walking In The Rain’ (Flash And The Pan cover)03. ‘Born Black’ (new song)04. ‘My Jamaican Guy’05. ‘I’ve Done It Again’06. ‘Demolition Man’07. ‘War No More’ (new song)08. ‘Love Is The Drug’ (Roxy Music cover)09. ‘I’ve Seen That Face Before (Libertango)’10. ‘Williams’ Blood’11. ‘Amazing Grace’ (John Newton cover)12. ‘Slave To The Rhythm ‘13. ‘Hurricane’14. ‘Pull Up To The Bumper’Acts including Peaches, Skunk Anansie, Dry Cleaning, Greentea Peng, John Grant, Sky Ferreira, Hot Chip and Honey Dijon played this year’s event.Anansie frontwoman Skin told NME last month about the “honour” of being asked to play the festival, and revealed the memorable request letter that the icon sent her.“I was aghast because we were the first band she asked,” Skin told NME.

Grace Jones-curated edition of London’s Meltdown Festival kicks off this Friday (June 10) and – alongside exclusive gigs – features a raft of free public programming.Events will run across the Southbank Centre’s venues for the duration of the festival, which runs until June 19, offering a host of activities for fans to get involved in.Throughout the whole festival a new audio installation from poet Travis Alabanza will lead visitors in saying “grace” to Jones. The We Say Grace installation will be played around the Southbank Centre site from Friday.Workshops will be on offer for a variety of activities, including rollerskating at the Roll Up To The Bumper event at Riverside Terrace on June 11, and hula-hooping at the Do or Die…or Disco with Marawa’s Majorettes, which takes place at the same venue on June 17.The former will feature DJ sets from Kengo, Frankie J and Petite while some of London’s finest skaters show punters the ropes.

Skunk Anansie frontwoman Skin has told NME about the “honour” of being asked to play the Grace Jones-curated Meltdown festival 2022, and revealed the memorable request letter that the icon sent her.Having been handpicked by Jones to perform at this June’s Meltdown festival in London alongside the likes of John Grant, Sky Ferreira, Peaches, Hot Chip and Greentea Peng, Skin described the invitation as “an honour”.“I was aghast because we were the first band she asked,” Skin told NME. “She wrote us a letter saying: ‘If you don’t do it, I’m going to break your neck!’ Something like that! It was a typical Grace Jones letter and it cracked me up.”In the ‘90s, Skin resented constant comparisons to Jones, considering it reductive to equate the two trailblazers because they are both outspoken black female performers.