Zach Top, Keith Urban and Brooks & Dunn have been announced as the three headliners for the 2026 edition of C2C: Country to Country. The festival runs March 13 to 15 across London’s The O2, Glasgow’s OVO Hydro and Belfast’s SSE Arena, bringing some of the biggest names in country back to UK and Irish audiences.

For Zach Top, these shows will mark his UK debut. The Academy of Country Music’s reigning New Male Artist of the Year headlines The O2 on March 13, joined by Scotty McCreery, Waylon Wyatt and Noeline Hofmann. Top has been steadily gaining momentum in Nashville with a 1990s inspired, neo-traditional sound that sets him apart from the mainstream pop country trend. The track ‘I Never Lie’ first gained traction on TikTok, giving Top wider recognition and highlighting how digital platforms now circulate more traditional leaning country sounds.

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Keith Urban returns to C2C for the first time in seven years, beginning his run in Glasgow. Urban will be joined by Russell Dickerson, Tyler Braden, Alana Springsteen and Bayker Blankenship. Grammy award winning Urban has carved out a strong following in Europe with arena ready shows that mix country with crossover pop rock.

Brooks & Dunn will headline C2C for the first time, opening in Belfast before continuing to Glasgow and London. It will be their first UK appearance since 2010. The duo will be joined by Drake Milligan, Kameron Marlowe, Ashley Cooke and MacKenzie Carpenter.

Since its debut in 2013 with Tim McGraw and Carrie Underwood at The O2, C2C has grown into the largest country festival outside North America, drawing tens of thousands each year. Alongside its marquee names, the festival has consistently provided a platform for emerging acts from Nashville, the UK and Europe. BBC Radio 2 returns as broadcast partner, while the Country Music Association continues to back the Spotlight Stage and songwriter showcases. Sarah Trahern, chief executive officer of the Country Music Association, said: “Helping rising country artists take their music to international audiences and working alongside the industry that champions them worldwide remains central to our mission.”

C2C 2026 also arrives as the festival expands across Europe, with new editions in Rotterdam and Berlin earlier in March featuring Jordan Davis, Jackson Dean and other rising American artists. Tickets for the UK shows go on sale Friday September 26 at 10am local time. The thirteenth edition of C2C once again balances established stars with fresh voices, underlining its role as the key gateway for country music outside the United States.

This year’s Global Citizen Live will take place in Rio de Janerio, London, Seoul, Los Angles, Sydney, Lagos, France’s capital city Paris and US city New York City and will include various artist’s live performances as well as pre-recorded sets. The worldwide concert aims to promote unity whilst rallying citizens of the world to urge major conglobates, governments and politicians as well as philanthropists to band together to help the world’s poverty-stricken communities and help rectify the recent global issues.

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The global event has been dated to take place this September to match with the UN General Assembly which is also taking place this September. Global Citizen Live will also coincide with other important meetings and summits including the G20 and COP26 set to take later on in 2021. Each act performing will be taking part in a 24-hour historic musical event, the concerts will be aired over many broadcasted mediums including ABC, ABC News Live, BBC, FX, IHeartRadio, Hulu, YouTube, TIME, Twitter as well as many more social media and televised channels.

Ed Sheeran will join the impressive list of artists billed to perform in Paris, joining the ‘Shape of You’ singer are hitmakers Black Eyed Peas, H.E.R., Dj Snake, Christine and the Queens and ‘Kiss Me More’ singer Doja Cat.  The line-up featured in Lagos include musician Femi Kuti, singer-songwriter Davido, Made Kuti and MTV Europe music award winner Tiwa Savage.

New York City’s event will take place at the famous landmark, Central Park, Global Citizen has been hosting events at the famed landmark since 2012. Performing at the city’s venue includes a vast array of artists such as ‘Bad Guy’ singer Billie Eilish and former Fifth Harmony member Camila Cabello. Also included to play the city that never sleeps are British hitmakers Coldplay, legendary artist Jennifer Lopez, ‘Good as Hell’ singer Lizzo, Shawn Mendes and rapper Meek Mill. New York City’s event will also see performances by special guests Burna Boy and Lang Lang, also set to take the stage at Central Park is 80’s pop icon Cyndi Lauper, known for her ‘Girl’s Just Want To Have Fun’ mega-hit.

Other artists donating themselves to the cause include Queen + Adam Lambert singer Adam Lambert, Alessia Cara, Opera tenor singer Andrea Bocelli, Angélique Kidjo, BTS, Demi Lovato, legendary 80’s band Duran Duran, iconic punk rockers Green Day, Hugh Jackman & Deborra-Lee Furness, Jon Batiste, Country music artist Keith Urban, ‘Royals’ singer-songwriter Lorde, The Lumineers, thrash metal pioneers Metallica, Rag ‘ n’ Bone Man, Ricky Martin, The Weeknd and Usher with even more acts to be announced.

Global Citizen’s Head of Music, Entertainment and Artist Relations, Katie Hill, has provided the following statement describing the organisation’s mission statement whilst expressing the organisation’s excitement to work with the host of artists. “Over the last year and a half, we’ve seen music bring communities together and inspire action during one of the most challenging times of our generation, We’re excited to join these incredible artists to unite people across the globe on September 25 as we hold world leaders and business leaders accountable to rectify the damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. As we carefully resume Global Citizen’s live events, we couldn’t be more grateful to each of these artists for donating their time and performances to make an impact through this urgent campaign.”

Potential ticket-holders must earn their way into the amazing event by winning their tickets and each location has its own draw. You must begin by downloading the Global Citizen app and creating an account, within this app users can sign petitions, write letters to government officials and politicians, share news and messages via social media plus many more actions. These actions can earn users points, which they can then use to enter to win tickets to the event. The first collection of actions was released on 10th August 2021, fans have until 24th August 2021 to fulfil enough actions to place them in the competition to receive tickets. The lucky winners will be selected at random and will be notified via email, once the email has been received, ticket winners have 48 hours in which to claim their tickets.

Click here to learn more about the event.

Martin chatted to fans through Instagram Live and played acoustic piano songs for a set of 30 minutes, covering ‘Life On Mars’ and playing a few of Coldplay’s hits such as ‘Viva La Vida’, ‘Clocks’, and ‘Yellow’. The campaign has been called ‘Together, At Home’ and is a collaboration between the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Global Citizen. It is a series of virtual concerts which hopes to “promote unity amis the Covid-19 pandemic’s social distancing protocols“ as well as supporting WHO’s Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund. The livestream had 31,000 viewers including John Legend, fellow song-writer and friend of Martin, who will hopefully be one the next acts to livestream.

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Chris played a mini gig at home earlier today on IG Live. @glblctzn @WHO @JohnLegend #TogetherAtHome

A post shared by Coldplay (@coldplay) on Mar 16, 2020 at 5:21pm PDT

Other artists and bands have joined in, including Yungblud. The 22-year-old singer had planned to tour South America during this time but, upon its cancellation, he decided to connect with fans online from America, where he is currently residing. He put on a full gig called ‘The Yungblud Show’ with a band and a venue, live streaming an hour long set which even included a cooking segment.

317,000 people tuned in and sent comments and videos of themselves dancing in their homes. In an interview with Channel 4, the artist said the the idea was originally to have a small bedroom performance, but the fans turned it into a big production. Yungblud also mentioned that he was currently trying to plan the next event.

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monday 7am pdt. see you there. tell ya mates. @machinegunkelly @bellathorne @olivertree

A post shared by YUNGBLUD (@yungblud) on Mar 14, 2020 at 12:16pm PDT

This idea has caught on, allowing people to connect and be creative, even though the loss of income is still devastating. Christine And The Queens are staging nightly live shows from the Ferber recording studio in Paris, while Keith Urban played a 30 minute show from his warehouse as Nicole Kidman listened in the background. These can be found on their Instagram pages.

Frank Turner held a fundraising show on Facebook yesterday (Tuesday 17th March) to combat financial losses. Finally, Welsh folk band Calan sold personalised songs along with some of their clothes to earn back the money from their cancelled tour.