Stormzy to headline Rocking the Daisies 2023

Stormzy performs on stage during Global Citizen Festival 2022: Accra on September 24, 2022.

British rapper Stormzy will headline the 2023 edition of Rocking the Daisies.

The country's biggest music and lifestyle festival has teamed up with headline sponsor Johnnie Walker once again to give fans a taste of local and international talent from 6-8 October 2023 at Cloof Wine Estate, Cape Town and 8 October at SuperSport Park, Johannesburg.

Universally beloved grime and hip-hop mogul Stormzy who has headlined major festivals worldwide such as Rolling Loud, Glastonbury and Coachella, will be coming to South Africa for the first time.

Stormzy – real name Michael Ebenezer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr – started his career in the early 2010s by uploading his Wicked Skengman series of freestyles to YouTube over classic grime beats and has since risen to stardom and established himself as one of the globes most critically acclaimed artists, according to a press release.

Climbing out of the underground grime scene with a series of triumphant mixtapes, singles, and freestyles - he made his breakthrough in 2017 with his official full-length platinum-certified, chart-topping debut album, Gang Signs & Prayer, which incorporated a taste of gospel and R&B influences seen on popular songs such as single Big for Your Boots, Cigarettes & Cush with Kehlani, and Blinded by Your Grace, Pt. 2 with MNEK, with other collaborations ranging from the likes of Ed Sheeran and Burna Boy to name a few.

His third album titled This is what I mean, was released in November 2022 with guests vocalists including Sampha, Jacob Collier, Arya Star and Nao.

REVIEW | Stormzy explores spirituality and success on his third studio album

"We're excited to have Stormzy as one of our headliners at this year's festival following the unforeseen circumstances brought by the Covid-19 pandemic. He is an unbelievably talented performer with an incredible catalogue of music," said Festival Director Shannon Valstar.

She added:

On Friday, Rocking the Daisies announced the addition of Nigerian singer and songwriter Ayra Starr and British pop band, The Vamps to their #JWxRTD 2023 line-up.

Ayra Starr began her career in fashion as a model at the age of 16 before going viral for doing covers on Instagram. In 2019, she posted her first original song, Toxic, on the social media platform. Since then, she has established a fresh and honest sound with lyricism that glides effortlessly between R&B, Afrobeats, Afrofunk, and neo-soul.

The release of her debut studio album in 2021, titled 19 & Dangerous achieved multiple number 1 hits, a number of unprecedented co-signs, and organic virality as she shared a stage with fellow Nigerian giant Burna Boy at his O2 Arena show in London. The Nigerian songstress has since performed at Coachella, collaborated with Wizkid, and had her chart-topping single, Rush, off the deluxe edition of her debut album, including onto former US president Barack Obama's favourite music list of 2022!

Brad Simpson, James Brittain-McVey, Connor Ball and Tristan Evans, better known as The Vamps, formed in 2012 and have gone from strength to strength over the years since releasing their debut album 'Meet the Vamps' in 2014, which featured some of the boy bands' biggest hits, like 'Wild Heart', 'Last Night', 'Somebody to You', 'Can We Dance' and 'Oh Cecilia (Breaking My Heart).

Before becoming headliners in their own right, The Vamps supported huge stars including Demi Lovato, The Wanted, Little Mix and Taylor Swift before establishing a cult following of vampions and vampettes. In 2017, they achieved their first number 1 on the Official UK Albums Chart with Night & Day.