Sampa the Great

The Preatures, Holy Holy & more announced for Festival of the Sun 2017

Festival of the Sun returns to Port Macquarie this December, looking to sell out quickly too, if previous years’ ticket sales are anything to go by! Long regarded as one of the east coast’s most popular festival events, Festival of the Sun hasn’t changed its blueprint one iota. Still completely BYO, FOTSUN has retained its family…

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Our top 10 acts of Splendour in the Grass 2017

Non-headliners ruled Splendour in the Grass this year, and if anything defined the festival for 2017 it was that interest is shifting towards locals who are giving it their all, swiftly outshining headliners for what has become the proving ground for many a homegrown musician over the years. As a festival, Splendour is one of…

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Sampa the Great, Dustin Thomas and more prove to be early highlights of Splendour in the Grass

While most people wait to start their Splendour weekend on Friday, plenty of festivalgoers – especially the campers – know that heading along to the festival’s official kick-off on Thursday is well worth it. This year even moreso as Red Bull Sound Select came on board to curate a program at the Mix-Up Stage that…

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13 non-headliners that are going to absolutely slay at Splendour ’17

Got your Splendour schedule locked in? You might want to leave a few spots open. One of Australia’s biggest and best music festivals is a gold mine when it comes to discovering new music or watching that mid-card act completely own the entire festival and make you wonder why they weren’t top-billed in the first…

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The 20 Best Singles of 2017 (So Far) from Australia and Around the World

Earlier this week, we unveiled our list of the 20 Best Albums of 2017 so far – as voted by our team – with The Smith Street Band reigning supreme with their acclaimed album, More Scared of You Than You Are of Me. Breaking things down even further, today we throw the spotlight on some of the…

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Opinion: Why it’s never been a better time to watch the changing face of Australian hip hop

The national ‘Fire Sign’ tour that has seen Remi, Sensible J and Sampa The Great collaborate on continues to Hobart this weekend before finishing up north in Darwin come July 8th. The reviews and chatter that have emerged in the wake of completed shows around the country so far have been positive and driven by enthusiasm – these…

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Live Review: REMI + Sampa The Great + Man Made Mountain – Fat Controller, Adelaide (25.06.17)

In what could easily be described as one of the most exciting co-headline tours we’ve seen this year, hip-hop heavyweights Remi Kolawole and Sensible J (collectively known as REMI) and Sampa The Great joined forces this winter for the Fire Sign national tour. The duo are no strangers to collaborating, most recently teaming up for…

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Single of the Day: Sensible J ft. Remi & Sampa The Great “Fire Sign” (2017)

They’re fresh off the back of some well-received shows in the UK and are currently looking down the barrel at a huge collaborative tour back at home. It’s only right that in the middle of it all, there should be some new music featuring the soulful triumvirate of Sensible J, Remi and Sampa the Great. “Fire Sign” is…

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From Aldous to Dean: The 8 Best Performances at The UK’s Great Escape

Now the dust has finally settled on The Great Escape for another year and a flight back to Australia beckons, I’ve been loading up my flight playlist and have come to land on my top eight artists from my time out in Brighton. Of course, there were some shining artists I’d known about prior, while…

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Review: Rain came to dampen The Great Escape but instead, the global music industry embraced the conditions in 2017

Ah, The Great Escape. Snipping at the heels of its American counterpart, SXSW, the British festival – established for music discovery – has grown considerably in recent year, drawing thousands of music fans and industry professionals out to Brighton to watch hundreds of established and emerging bands from the world over showcase their sounds in a variety of…

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Our Top Acts to Watch at The Great Escape Festival

The Great Escape festival returns to Brighton and Hove this year, bringing with it over 450 new and up and coming bands. Here at the AU, we love Australian music, and couldn’t be prouder of the Aussie acts that have been selected to perform, in the midst of such a sheer volume of talent. Honourable mentions to…

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Sampa The Great reigns supreme as The Great Escape Festival wraps up its first night

The Great Escape brought its A-game to the first official day of proceedings out in Brighton this Thursday. The rain did not deter the delegates and punters from embracing the sheer wealth of live music to be absorbed across the wide variety of music venues within the city. While the SOUNDS AUSTRALIA Sound Gallery showcase…

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Sounds Australia outlay huge Sound Gallery & Aussie BBQ plans for The Great Escape

The Sounds Australia crew return to the UK for The Great Escape this year and once more, they have curated some incredibly showcases for the British to see what the Australians have going. Two showcases have been planned for Brighton – the Sound Gallery returns to Komedia on Thursday, May 18th, while the Aussie BBQ hits…

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Sampa the Great’s HERoes Act 2 EP is out now and you need to listen in ASAP

Sampa the Great‘s reputation precedes her now. The Sydney-based artist recently found herself at the Red Bull Sound Select Studios in Paris laying down the brilliant touches on her highly anticipated HERoes Act 2 EP with LA producer Rahki. Also collaborating with the Grammy winning songwriter and artist Estelle, Sampa has channeled some effortless groove and and maturity within her…

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Listen to Sampa The Great’s link up with Estelle & Rakhi, “Everybody’s Hero”

Sampa The Great has continued to raise the level of buzz surrounding her forthcoming EP HERoes Act 2, with the release of a brand new single in “Everybody’s Hero”. The song saw the Sydney-based artist head into the Red Bull Sound Select studios in Paris with Estelle and producer Rakhi (Syd, Kendrick Lamar) to lay down the glistening track that once again,…

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Review: Bad Friday street festival a reminder of just how Good Sydney can be

Bad Friday has become a Good Friday tradition in Sydney, boasting incredible local lineups since it burst onto the scene in 2010 at the Annandale Hotel. This year’s lineup – with DMA’s and The Jezabels at the top of the list – is easily their strongest yet. Though it was the performances that scattered the…

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Sydney’s Bad Friday event is a mighty fine way to kick off the Easter Long Weekend

With a long weekend ahead of us, many places will be shutting for Good Friday – this isn’t the case when it comes to the Sydney crew throwing the eighth edition of Bad Friday. The all day block party takes over Marrickville on Friday and man, is the line up a stellar one. Headlined by DMAs and…

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Sampa The Great, Tired Lion among new additions to The Great Escape

A hundred new artists have been added to this year’s line up for The Great Escape out in Brighton, UK in May. Widely regarded as the biggest festival in Europe for new music discovery, we’re stoked to see the likes of Sampa The Great, Tired Lion, Slaves, Marika Hackman and more join a stellar group of artists from all over the…

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The 40 Best Singles of 2016 (Part Two): The Top 20

Our Top 20 Singles from 2016 represent not only what was a strong and diverse year in new music, but they also presented themselves to be solid indicators of the trajectories of some of our favourite new artists. From NGAIIRE‘s “House on a Rock” to B Wise‘s “No Questions”, through to huge international hitters in Childish Gambino‘s “Redbone”…

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2016 AU Awards: A look at the nominees for ‘Female Artist of the Year’

Yesterday, we brought you an extra little look at the AU Award nominees for Male Artist of the Year – a reflective on how those six artists have flown on our radar through the year and why they’ve been nominated. Today, the focus turns to the ladies as we take a peek at the 2016’s…

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Zan Rowe opens up on her time with triple j and the longevity of radio

How do I even introduce Zan Rowe to those who aren’t familiar with her (how!?), where do I begin? She has been a friend to many over her years at triple j, introducing so many amazing artists to so many people, guiding us to new areas in our musical tastes, and helping everyone start the…

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Live Review: Her Sound, Her Story – State Library of Victoria (11.11.16)

Nearly two years of work by two Melbourne artists, photographer Michelle Grace Hunder and filmmaker Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore, has culminated in the powerful, multifaceted Her Sound, Her Story. It’s a project created as a response to the conversation observed surrounding women in the Australian music industry, documenting more than 40 female artists who have, or…

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Camp Cope, Gang of Youths & Tkay Maidza rack up nominations for the 2016 National Live Music Awards!

The nominees for the National Live Music Awards have been announced around the country today, with 51 categories being unveiled across the board. Winners are to be announced on November 29th at events being run nationally, with both national and state-specific categories being voted on by a judging panel of industry professionals from right around Australia….

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Sampa the Great talks new music & a rise in self-confidence off the back of 2016 in the spotlight

Sampa the Great has been an artist we have loved seeing go from strength to strength through 2016. As her music has spread to more audiences around the country and her live shows have continued to build, Sampa emerged as a frontrunner in this current crop of young artists stepping up to the plate with some brilliant lyricism…

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Sampa The Great will play a special show in Melbourne this November as the recipient of the inaugural ‘Corner Award’

Sampa The Great continues to be celebrated (and rightly so), with the artist being named the recipient of the inaugural Corner Award! The award, presented by the iconic Melbourne live music venue, will see Sampa perform a special headlining show at The Corner on November 4th, with the first 150 ticket purchases set to receive a…

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The 2017 Laneway Festival line up is here, with Tame Impala, Glass Animals, The Julie Ruin & more confirmed

In its 13th year in 2017, the St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival returns with some names that have graced its stages before breaking out overseas, some names who will be making their Laneway debut and some names that come with a solid whack of international hype backing them. We already knew that A.B. Original and Nick Murphy (FKA Chet Faker) would be on…

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BIGSOUND 2016 in Photos: Off Stage & Behind the Scenes with Artists to Watch

With BIGSOUND serving up a live music lineup that no doubt brought solid highlights across all genres this past week, we were lucky to spend some time with some of the artists who performed some bloody amazing shows over the course of the event. Photos by Zakarij Kaczmarek. SAMPA THE GREAT An artist who came to BIGSOUND with a lot of…

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