The first wave of artists for Manchester Pride 2024 have been announced, with Jessie J and Loreen set to headline two of the four nights.
- READ MORE: Eurovision legend Loreen: “Of course I do spiritual pop… That sense of release is so important.”
This year’s edition of Manchester Pride will span across four days – running between August 23 and 26. Now, it has been confirmed that BRIT Award nominee Jessie J and two-time Eurovision winner Loreen have been lined up as headliners.
Loreen took the Eurovision crown home at last year’s Song Contest, representing Sweden with her song ‘Tattoo’. It marked her second victory after having won for the first time back in 2012. For Jessie J, the headline slot comes after a variety of accolades across her career, which she kicked off back in 2010 with the hit single ‘Do It Like A Dude’.
Others added to the line-up for the four-day live event include Katy B, Chinchilla, reigning Drag Race UK winner Ginger Johnson, Steps‘ Claire Richards and Atomic Kitten‘s Natasha Hamilton.
Bimini, Danny Beard and Black Peppa will also be performing at the 2024 edition, and another headline act is set to be revealed at a later date.
You can find tickets to Manchester Pride 2024 here, and check out the current line-up in the poster below.
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As reported by BBC, a representative for the event said the festival site would revolve around three performance spaces in Manchester’s Gay Village. These comprise the Village Stage “which occupies an outdoor car park in the middle of the event site”, the Alan Turing Stage in Sackville Gardens, and the Indoor Arena, which would provide “a warehouse-style clubbing experience”.
As well as promising another headliner soon, Chief Executive Mark Fletcher also revealed that “a few surprises” would be revealed “over the coming months”.
He also said there would be “a huge variety of entertainment on offer this year”, including a “host of classic Pride favourites, emerging artists, drag royalty and well-known performers spanning a whole range of genres”.
“Each year we ask our communities what they’d like to see at the festival and I’m thrilled that we’ve been able to respond with this line-up. Jessie J and Loreen are outstanding performers [and] it’s brilliant to have them sharing the stage with local queer talent and supporting us as we continue to push the Pride movement forward,” he said (via BBC News).
He added what was “most important” for the festival was the “representation and visibility of the further marginalised LGBTQ+ people”.
Last summer, following her Eurovision victory, Loreen sat down with NME to discuss her plans for new music and the feeling of taking home the song contest trophy for the second time.
She also opened up about how she would categorise her style of music, and said that she agrees with a fan’s comment that it is “spiritual pop”.
“It’s exactly what it is. Of course, I do spiritual pop. The dynamics in my songs – if you look at ‘Euphoria’ and ‘Tattoo’ – there is a spiritual thing going on there. You start with this small whispery thing, then you start building energy and being stronger and stronger, until you come to the chorus where it’s full-on power,” she explained.
“This is spiritual in a way because it’s almost like watching a movie and getting to the place where you start crying and feel a release. And that release is so important. We get it from clubbing, dancing, music – and we need it, because otherwise [there’s] a lot of stagnation in the body. So there’s a purpose to why I use certain dynamics, because you can’t really just scream at somebody [from the start]. You have to really build up – almost like trust, in a way, until you come to the point of release. And [in that moment] it could be that you cry or feel happy or whatever. But it is a spiritual build-up.”