Little Simz Will Curate The Southbank Centre’s 30th Meltdown

Dating back to 1993, Meltdown is the longest-running artist-curated music festival in the world, taking over the Southbank Centre for more than a week each year (except 2006, 2020 and 2021). Some of music’s brightest stars have curated Meltdown across the years – amounting to a personal festival showcasing their interests and influences – from Elvis Costello to Nick Cave, David Bowie to Grace Jones, Jarvis Cocker to Yoko Ono. And now it’s over to a London native for Meltdown 2025: Little Simz. Here’s everything we know so far about the rapper’s curated music festival.

Little Simz’s Meltdown: Southbank Centre 2025

It’s official: Little Simz will curate the Southbank Centre’s 30th Meltdown, promising to bring a boundary-breaking line-up of musicians across an 11-day festival – including two weekends of free programming.

‘I’m super excited to be the 2025 Meltdown festival curator!’ the rapper says. ‘My team and I are preparing 11 days of art, music, workshops and more. So many incredible artists have curated this festival, so it’s a true honour to be a part of it. Thank you to the Southbank Centre for having me. Meltdown 2025 the Simz way is going to be epic. I’ll see you there.’

‘Meltdown has become one of the most enduring and anticipated highlights of the annual music calendar, shaped each year by the spirit, imagination and artistry of its curator,’ says Mark Ball, the Southbank Centre’s artistic director. ‘Little Simz is becoming such a powerful influence in London and beyond and we’re delighted that for eleven days in June the Southbank Centre will become her cultural playground where she can fully explore her musicianship, her icons and her cultural passions.’

Meet Little Simz

Born and raised in Islington to Nigerian parents, Little Simz is one of the UK’s most captivating visionary artists of her generation. Emerging on the music scene with three independently released albums – A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons (2015), Stillness in Wonderland (2016) and Grey Area (2019) – she rose to more widespread prominence with her 2019 Mercury Prize nomination for the latter, which spurned singles ‘Offence’ and ‘Boss’. Her later 2022 Mercury Prize win for Sometimes I Might Be An Introvert (2021) solidified her combined critical and commercial success. Simz also won the 2022 Brit Award for Best New Act.

Who’s On The Line-Up?

Little Simz will perform at Meltdown 2025, but no details on the rest of the line-up just yet. The Southbank is set to reveal further details in spring. In 2024, curator Chaka Khan welcomed the likes of Emeli Sandé, Lady Blackbird, Bruce Hornsby and Incognito to Meltdown, attracting tens of thousands of visitors.

‘Little Simz’ ability to forge new genre-defying ideas and her ambition to inspire the next generation of creators aligns with what the Southbank Centre’s artistic programme and vision stands for,’ says the Southbank Centre’s head of contemporary music Jane Beese. ‘We’re incredibly excited to witness the lineup she’ll curate and for the power of her great art, leadership and culture to bring people together on-site for our 30th year.’

When & Where?

Meltdown will take over the Southbank Centre from 12–22 June 2025.

Stay up to date at southbankcentre.co.uk