WILL LINLEY

In the organizer's words:

It begins in a living room somewhere in Cape Town. A boy, barely ten years old, listens to his father's record collection, secretly practises his guitar and waits for the front door to open. When his father comes home, a small concert awaits him - with childlike fervor but a surprising amount of emotion. Almost two decades later, Will Linley no longer plays his songs in his living room, but on the world's biggest stages. What has remained is the passion - and the ability to transform emotions into precisely cut pop melodies that move millions. With his debut "miss me (when you're gone)", the then 20-year-old shot to fame in 2021. Over 20 million streams on Spotify, number one on South African radio, gold status. A success that felt like a promise. Since then, Linley has delivered reliably: songs that sound as if they were created on a rollercoaster ride between euphoria and melancholy - always honest, always accessible. His EPs "Kill All My Feelings" (2022) and "Magic" (2023) tell of love, loss and doubt - all wrapped up in choruses that you want to sing along to the second time you hear them. "Heartbreak Bangers", as the British music platform The Line of Best Fit wrote. Linley's musical talent is no coincidence. He started writing at the age of ten - even if, as he says with a laugh today, much of it would have been better left in a drawer forever. What has remained: the seriousness in dealing with emotions and the gift of transforming even painful topics into bright, danceable songs. It is this balance of depth and lightness that makes him the voice of a generation for whom emotion and pop are no longer a contradiction in terms. His latest song "Cinematic" provides a first glimpse of his upcoming debut album, which is due to be released in fall 2025. It already sounds like what Linley does best: Pouring great emotions into great melodies without ever becoming pathetic. But if you want to understand why this young artist reaches so many hearts, you have to experience him live. Because on stage, Linley's music becomes physical. Between quiet intimacy and ecstatic sing-alongs, there is a closeness that is not staged, but tangible. His voice sometimes breaks, he laughs, tells anecdotes and never comes across as someone playing on autopilot. Perhaps this is precisely where his greatest appeal lies: in an authenticity that cannot be polished to a high gloss. Having already been on arena tours with Maroon 5 and OneRepublic, he now effortlessly fills his own halls - from Cape Town to Chicago, from TikTok to the festival stage.

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