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The album is set to come out this Friday (October 24).

The announcement comes after Dave wiped his social media pages earlier this month, and fans were directed to a new sign-up page which caused speculation over what it meant.

The upcoming release will also follow back-to-back number one albums, ‘Psychodrama‘ (released in 2019), and ‘We’re All Alone In This Together’ (released in 2021).

Fans can pre-order the album here.

Dave’s last release, ‘Split Decision’ , was a collaborative EP that saw him team up with fellow UK rapper Central Cee, with lead single ‘Sprinter’ debuting with 108,200 chart units in its first week and 13.4 million streams – the greatest week of streams for a rap single in UK history.

Following this album announcement, Dave also announced a UK and Europe tour for 2026.

 

 

 

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He announced new live shows which will start in Glasgow’s OVO Hydro on 4 March next year.

He will then head to the O2 Arena in London for shows on 6 and 7 March. Two additional shows have been added to the O2 Arena due to popular demand on 10 and 11 March.

He will then perform in Birmingham at Utilita Arena on 13 March before finishing the UK leg of the tour at Manchester’s Co-op Live on 16 March.

General sale for the tour starts on 23 October at 9am, and fans can purchase tickets here.

UK 2026 Tour Dates:

March 4 – Glasgow – OVO Hydro

March 6 – London – O2 Arena

March 7 – London – O2 Arena

March 10 – London – O2 Arena

March 11 – London – O2 Arena

March 13 – Birmingham – Utilita Arena

March 16 – Manchester – Co-op Live

Dave also announced on social media yesterday the official tracklist for his new album, with it including ten songs.

None of the songs have been released as singles.

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The album features collaborations with Jim Legxacy, James Blake, Kano, and Tems and draws inspirations from biblical storytelling.

The reaction on social media for the tracklist has been mainly positive with people leaving comments such as, “less is more – ready !” and “CLASSIC loading”.

The instagram post also includes pictures of Dave with each of the collaborations mentioned above, allowing fans an insight into who he has collaborated with.

‘The Boy Who Played the Harp‘ Tracklist:

1. ‘History’ (ft. James Blake)

2. ‘175 Months’

3. ‘No Weapons’ (ft. Jim Legxacy)

4. ‘Chapter 16′ (ft. Kano)

5. ‘Raindance’ (ft. Tems)

6. ‘Selfish’ (ft. James Blake)

7. ‘My 27th Birthday’

8. ‘Marvellous’

9. ‘Fairchild’

10. ‘The Boy Who Played the Harp’

Sealing last year’s number one spot was none other than Miley Cyrus with her smash hit “Flowers”, which spent an incredible 10 weeks at the top of the Official UK Singles chart. “Flowers” was the lead single from Cyrus’ eighth studio-album Endless Summer Vacation, and went on to accumulate 198 million combined audio and video streams in the UK in 2023, making it the most-streamed song of the year. The 31-year-old’s single also went on to be the most-downloaded song of the year, with 91,000 UK downloads.

Joining Miley in a 10-week long reign at the number one spot were British rappers Dave and Central Cee with their single “Sprinter”. The track was a smash hit as it broke UK chart records as it clinched the biggest streaming week for any rap song in Official Chart history, and also claimed the title of the longest-running rap Number 1 in the UK. Since its release, the team duo have racked up 161 million UK audio and video streams, landing them the number two spot on the top songs of 2023.

The track claiming the number three spot in this list was originally the first Official Number One Single of 2023. When RAYE and 070 Shake’s track “Escapism” soared to number one, RAYE told Official Charts: “We are Number 1 in the UK! It’s the first Number 1 of the year, it’s my first Number 1 in my life. I’m an independent artist, this is sickening! This is proof you should back yourself, no matter what. Thank you, this is mad. These are happy tears!” 

Completing 2023’s top five was Taylor Swift’s resilient 2022 hit “Anti-Hero”, and collaboration trance track “Miracle” from Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding. Celebrating the success of the latter, Goulding told Official Charts: “This is just very cool. Thank you very much to everyone for listening to it and supporting it, Oontz, oontz…rave on!” 

The Official top 10 songs of 2023:

1. “Flowers” – Miley Cyrus
2. “Sprinter” – Dave & Central Cee
3. “Escapism” – RAYE feat. 070 Shake
4. “Anti-Hero” – Taylor Swift
5. “Miracle” – Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding
6. “Calm Down” – Rema
7. “Kill Bill” – SZA
8. “Boy’s A Liar” – PinkPantheress
9. “As It Was” – Harry Styles
10. “People” Libianca

Born one day apart, the two artists release “Split Decision” in celebration of their 25th birthday. As Central Cee’s birthday on the 4th June and Dave’s birthday the day after (5th June), the rappers include one song titled “Our 25th Birthday”.

There are four songs on the EP in total. The song “Trojan Horse” is the first song on the EP followed by “Sprinter”. Produced by UK R&B singer Kamal, “Our 25th Birthday” is the third song on “Split Decision”. Kamal also features on Dave’s single “Mercury”. The EP ends with the song “UK Rap”.

See Dave’s announcement on his Instagram below:

Prior to the release of their EP, Central Cee and Dave dropped “Sprinter” as a single accompanied with a music video. The video was filmed in London and Monaco, featuring a cameo from Nigerian artist Slawn.

Watch Central Cee and Dave’s music video for “Sprinter” below:

With 3.867 million streams, the song has debuted at No.9 on the global Spotify according to Chart Data on Twitter.

Dave (@Santandave1) and Central Cee’s “Sprinter” debuts at #9 on the global Spotify chart with 3.867 million streams, the top new entry. pic.twitter.com/J5OMYMx2dY

— chart data (@chartdata) June 3, 2023

Additionally, Spotify announced “Sprinter” as the U.K.’s most-streamed song in a day so far this year, as well as the most-streamed hip-hop song in the UK in a single day ever on Spotify.

See SpotifyUK’s announcement on Instagram below:

The last time the pair made music together was when they both appeared on the remix of AJ Tracey’s “Spirit Bomb” in 2016. Trims, PK, Merky Ace, Cadell, Capo Lee, Skits, and Drifter also featured on the remix.

Listen to AJ Tracey’s “Spirit Bomb (Remix)” ft. Dave, Central Cee & more below:

Later this month, Central Cee will be performing at the Other stage at Glastonbury Festival. More artists performing at the festival include Arctic Monkeys, Lewis Capaldi, Elton John, Carly Rae Jepsen, Lil Nas X, Lana Del Ray, and Royal Blood.

He will also be performing at Reading and Leeds Festival 2023 which Dave, the youngest ever to headline at the festival, performed at last year.

Dave’s last release was in 2022 with his single “My 24th Birthday”. The song is his sequel to “My 19th Birthday” which was released in 2017 on his self-released EP “Game Over”.

Listen to Dave’s “My 24th Birthday” below:

The Brixton rapper went on tour last year which included stops around the UK, Europe, and North America. It also sold out two nights at London’s O2 Arena.

Listen to Dave and Central Cee’s EP below:

Leading the nominations this year is rapper Dave with six nominations. He is nominated for track of the year twice for his hits ‘Starlight’ and ‘Clash’ featuring Stormzy. Both singles also received nominations for Video of the Year. After recently headlining Reading and Leeds, the 24-year-old is also nominated for Male Artist of the Year alongside Central Cee, Digga D and 2021’s Track of the Year winner, Tion Wayne.

Dave has met widespread critical acclaim since his debut album Psychodrama which debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart back in 2019. It had the biggest first week of streams for a UK rap album and subsequently took home the 2020 Brit Award for Album of the Year and went on to win the Mercury Prize. His latest album, We’re All Alone in This Together is nominated for the GRM Rated Award for Album of the Year and faces competition from Little Simz, Fredo, Tion Wayne, M Huncho, Knucks and Kojey Radical. The Evening Standard described the album as a ‘masterpiece’ saying Dave is ‘the greatest rapper working in Britain today.”

Also leading the nominations is Little Simz who is featured in three categories. She’s up for Album of the Year with her Mercury Prize Nominated Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. AllMusic described the album as a “master class in modern songwriting with heaps of poise and a beating, soulful heart,” and Stereogum said the release was “cinematic and surreal and overwhelming”. Simz is also nominated for Female Artist of the Year alongside Mahalia, Ms Banks, Stefflon Don and FLO. Her single ‘Point and Kill’ features on the list for Track of the Year with fellow contenders Aitch, ArrDee and Central Cee.

You can see a full list of nominations here. Voting is now open and fans can place their votes for each category until the 21st of September. The hosts, performances and date of the ceremony are yet to be announced.

A description on the AIM Independent Music Award’s website provides the ceremony’s mission statement, “The AIM Awards 2022 marks the twenty-third year of the Association of Independent Music (AIM) and champions industry-leading creativity, innovation, and performance shown by independent artists, labels, and outstanding individuals. Since 2010, the AIM Independent Music Awards have honoured an extraordinary array of independent artists, music companies and industry figures including: Björk, Stormzy, Adele, The Prodigy, Peggy Gou, Wolf Alice, London Grammar, Jorja Smith, Christine and the Queens, Daughter, SOPHIE, 4AD, Ninja Tune, Transgressive, Martin Mills (Beggars), Goldie and Steve Beckett (Warp).”

Today we’re revealing the first wave of nominees for the AIM Independent Music Awards 2022, taking place at Camden’s iconic @RoundhouseLDN on September 28th.

Keep you’re eyes on our socials today to find out who is nominated for the following categories… pic.twitter.com/Ii25LXlbkw

— AIM (@AIM_UK) July 21, 2022

Multi-talented British artist FKA Twigs, Dave and Indie group Wet Leg are all in the running for the accolade Best Independent Track in association with Meta. FKA Twigs has been nominated for her single “Tears In The Club (feat. The Weeknd)”, Dave was nominated for his track “Starlight” and Wet Leg scored a nod for their hugely popular single “Chaise Longue“. All three artists will be up against seven more artists to win the accolade including Nova Twins, Anz and Yves Tumor.

Alt-rock duo Wet Leg will also be up against Nova Twins for the category of UK Independent Breakthrough in association with YouTube Music. The prize’s criteria confirms that the act must be an independent artist who has acquired some notoriety within the UK over the past year and must be self-released or signed to an independent label.

This year sees the inclusion of a new category, Best Independent EP/Mixtape. The brand-new award holds the following criteria, “Recognising the best independent EP/mixtape of the past year. The EP/mixtape must be by an artist signed to a UK/ROI based independent label or be self-released by an artist based in the UK/ROI. The EP/mixtape must have been released between 4th May 2021 and 26th April 2022“. The category marks FKA Twigs’ second nomination for this year’s AIM Independent Music Award; the artist was nominated for CAPRISONGS. Also included in the nominees list are Joy Oribnson for Still Slippin Vo.1, Surya Sen for At What Cost?, TAAHLIAH for Angelica and Wesley Joseph for ULTRAMARINE.

British rapper Dave scores his second nomination within the category Best Independent Album in association with Spotify, the artist has been put forward for the accolade due to his release We’re All Alone In This Together. Also up for the award are producer and artist Boj for Gbagda Express, Children Of Zeus for Balance, Cleo Sol for Mother, Dave Okumu for Knopperz, Emma-Jean Thackray for Yellow, Mustafa for When Smoke Rises, Nilufer Yanya for Painless, SAULT for NINE and Walt Disco for Unlearning.

The #AIMAwards2022 vote is now open for ‘Best Live Performer’

Every act on this long list has been submitted by their teams & a public vote decides the shortlist & winner. This free online poll closes at 2pm on Thursday 18th August Vote here https://t.co/HVDDwmcpXQ pic.twitter.com/MYvyghXent — AIM (@AIM_UK) July 21, 2022

This year’s ceremony consists of four more categories; Best Second Album in association with BBC Radio 6 Music, Best Independent Remix and One To Watch in association with BBC Introducing. The final category, Best Live Performer, stands alone as a very special accolade as a fan vote will decide the winner; the voting is now open and is accessed via this link.

The 5 nominations for best album are, admittedly, quite a breath of fresh air. With the general niceties that The Grammys keep going for, it’s good to see bands like Sleaford Mods get a shred of attention, their album, Spare Ribs, may not be the best in their discography, but it’s dealing with COVID at the time was almost quite new on the scene. Cleo Sol’s Mother, SAULT’s Nine, and Little Simz’ Sometimes I Might Be Introvert are the 3 albums that got nominated, and all give production credits to Inflo. Laura Mvula’s fantastic Pink Noise rounds out the list. Listen to “Got Me” below.

Ivors judge, and previous winner in 2001, Shaznay Lewis commented on the awards, “It’s been a standout year for music and I am full of admiration for the 77 talented songwriters and composers we are celebrating this year,” adding, “Their work and words touch on a dizzying range of emotions, and I count myself lucky to have heard their stories. As it has every year since 1956, The Ivors celebrates the outstanding creation of music, and I’d like to say a huge congratulations to every nominee.”

 The Best Contemporary Song category also has its own almost hidden gems, in terms of awards shows anyway; Russ Millions and Tion Wayne’s “Body”, James Blake’s “Coming Back”, FKA Twigs’ “Don’t Judge Me”, PinkPantheress’ “Just For Me”, and Inflo’s fourth and final nod with Little Simz’ “Sometimes I Might Be Introvert”. Slightly less interestingly, but arguably the most important award for the night, Songwriter of the Year throws in some particularly boring choices; Adele, Coldplay, Dave, Ed Sheeran, and RAYE. I thought the fact that Sheeran is still getting nominations for songwriting was a thing of the past. How foolish of me, he’s been nominated for 3 awards throughout the evening. Adele, and Little Simz also took 2 nominations.

The rapper from Manchester took to his Instagram to share his excitement ahead of the national arena tour. Meekz shared the tour dates as well as a caption that read “CSWS WAITT ,1st stop notts!!, See you there, Going to be joining bro on the road santandave  from today, we outside !, which city u @.., -Can’t/WAITT.”

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Meekz featured on Dave’s chart-topping album on the track “In The Fire”; the rapper appeared on the track following the opening verse from Fredo, who was then followed by UK rap royalty Ghetts and Giggs before a concluding verse from Dave. The tune was one of the best-received tracks due to the long feature list, something that was not initially promoted on the album track list. The song was also chosen by Dave for his historic Brits performance to wrap up the 2022 award show, and saw all four featured artists make an appearance on the 02 stage.

The masked rapper is still somewhat an unknown member of the UK rap scene with all information except his rap name and voice being held from fans. The artist had a very quiet 2021, only releasing two solo tracks “More Money” which he dropped at the end of the year, and so far has accumulated 3.6 million YouTube views and just over 4 million Spotify streams. As well as “More Money” the masked artist released “Respect the Come Up” a track that saw the rapper shoot a video while flying through the skies in a helicopter, and sits on 8.5 million views 4.6 million Spotify streams.

Dave’s national arena tour featuring Meekz has already kicked off, and will see the artist touch down in 10 cities around the country.

With most tickets having been sold out, remaining tickets are available here.

The 2022 iteration of the Brit Awards was hosted by Mo the Comedian with help from Bristolian presenter Maya Jama. The show saw thirteen awards given out, with Adele taking the most home; an impressive three wins to add to her already grand collection of nine Brits stretching all the way back to her first in 2008 for “Rising Star”.

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Last night winners are listed below:

Artist of the Year - Adele

Best Group - Wolf Alice

Brits Rising Star - Holly Humberstone

Song of the Year – Adele: “Easy On Me”

Best New Artist – Little Simz

Album of the Year - Adele: 30

Best Rock/Alternative Act – Sam Fender

Best Hip Hop/Grime Act – Dave

Best Dance Act – Becky Hill

Best Pop/RnB Act – Dua Lipa

Best International Group – Silk Sonic

International Song of the Year – Olivia Rodrigo “Good 4 U”

Songwriter of the Year – Ed Sheeran

The night saw a number of debut nominations as well as first wins for acts such as Becky Hill, Little Simz, Sam Fender, Olivia Rodrigo, Little Simz, Wolf Alice and Silk Sonics Anderon Paak.

Dave closed last nights show with a historic performance. The rapper performed previously at the 2020 awards show with a powerful performance of his song “Black” alongside his producer Fraser T Smith on the piano. This year, the youthful rapper made another statement with the performance of his track “In The Fire” of his chart-topping and Brit nominated album We’re All Alone In This Together. Not only did the rapper bring out featured artists Fredo, Meekz, Giggs and Ghetts to bless the Brits stage and showcase the talent in the UK rap scene from a number of different generations and genres, but the 23-year-old old embodied his inner Jimi Hendrix with a guitar solo on a flame thrower guitar, solidifying him as a legend within the UK rap scene and as an all-time great British artist.

Dave’s Brits performance is available to watch here:

ready for some performers? here’s who will be taking to The BRITs stage:@Santandave1@DojaCat@edsheeran@HolHumberstone@liamgallagher@LittleSimz

+ more to be announced

don’t miss The #BRITs on Tuesday 8 Feb on ITV (UK) and https://t.co/QjEmDoNxZW (International) pic.twitter.com/8sUq91d90T

— BRIT Awards (@BRITs) January 21, 2022

This year’s BRIT Awards will be held on Tuesday the 8th of February on ITV and on their YouTube channel, which can be accessed here.

The awards ceremony is becoming increasingly digital and social-media oriented, with a new public voting system taking place on TikTok. Covered here on mxdwn by Izzy Eddies last month: “Voters will be free to access the ‘BRIT hub’ specialised voting platform via the organisations Tik Tok on January the 20th and will be free to cast their votes until the 3rd of February.”

On top of this, the 2022 iteration will be perhaps the most inclusive we have seen the BRIT awards, “with there being more female artists on the shortlist of nominees than we have encountered in more than a decade.” Additionally, Jack Whitehall stepped aside from the presenter role to allow newcomer Mo Gilligan to present, alongside Maya Jama and Clara Amfo (see featured image).

Nominations for the award ceremony were revealed in December last year, with Dave and Little Simz taking the biggest swoop of four nominations each. Both their albums, We’re All Alone in This Together and Sometimes I Might Be Introvert respectively were huge international successes deserving of the highest acclaim within the UK.

Of the nominations, Little Simz said: “It’s an honour to be nominated for 4 BRIT Awards and I can’t wait to be performing on the night too. I’m so happy and grateful the music has connected and resonated. Congratulations to everyone nominated.”

Other nominees for this years BRITs include Central Cee, who controversially won the inaugural Best Drill Artist award at the MOBOs, and Tion Wayne and Russ, whose hit ‘Body’ became the first drill track to reach No.1 in the charts. These three artists owe much of their success to TikTok, whose music went viral as sounds on the platform, so it is fitting for the BRIT Awards to be incorporating TikTok into their electoral system.

Voting for the BRIT Awards closes on the 3rd of February and can be found here.

GO, GO, GOOO ‼️

General release tickets AND payment plans are now on sale! Click the link below for tickets!

Reading https://t.co/MXzhTR5eks
Leeds https://t.co/tL6GPBM1J0 pic.twitter.com/wbErSVYvBC

— Reading & Leeds Fest (@OfficialRandL) December 10, 2021

You can, however, get hold of tickets for the few other remaining days at each of the festivals. The Friday for Reading, or the Saturday for Leeds, with headliners Dave and Megan Thee Stallion, is still very much available for you to get your hands on. The dual headliners will share their day at the festival with Polo G, the immensely talented Little Simz, viral sensation Glass Animals, and industry newcomer PinkPantheress. A few other names are also attributed to the day with many more to be announced in the future.

The final day of the Reading Festival, or the first day of the Leeds Festival, also has day tickets available. So, if you’re in the mood for a genre-hopping day between the politically charged energy of Rage Against the Machine, and 2010’s chart-topping machine Halsey then today is the day for you. The pair will be backed by artists that really highlight the musical, political, and gender diversity of the festival this year. Experimental hip-hop duo Run the Jewels will hit the main stage after Eurovision’s offering this year Måneskin. Bastille and Chloe Moriondo join the line-up as the direct antithesis of the former artists.

As mentioned before, tickets to the Reading’s Saturday, Leeds’ Sunday, could prove to be quite expensive to bad now that the day tickets and festival weekend have sold out. Co-headliners Arctic Monkeys, and Bring Me the Horizon prove that British guitar music is far from dead, and anyone that says otherwise is just too ignorant to bother talking to. Wolf Alice, Fontaines D.C., Enter. Shikari, and Wilkinson round out the festival day.

You can try and get tickets to the remaining days here, if you already have tickets then you can just kick back and listen to this specially curated playlist from the festival themselves. Covering all the top tracks of the big names announced so far.