Muse have been confirmed to replace Kings Of Leon at NOS Alive 2025.
The 17th edition of the Lisbon festival will be held between July 10 and July 12, with Olivia Rodrigo set to headline. Other huge names revealed in the first wave of announcements were Girl In Red, Noah Kahan, Benson Boone, Amyl And The Sniffers and CMAT.
Later, Barry Can’t Swim, Finneas, Dead Poet Society and Foster The People were also confirmed, and in January, Sam Fender and Bright Eyes joined the line-up.
Initially, Kings Of Leon were scheduled to be the headliners for Saturday (July 12), booked in following the release of their ninth studio album, ‘Can We Please Have Fun’, which was shared last May. However, Wednesday (May 28) saw frontman Caleb Followill make the announcement that the band would be pulling out of the slot – as well as many others – due to injury.
This, he explained, was a recent “freak accident” that saw him break his foot and be forced to undergo emergency surgery. As well as the slot at NOS Alive, other scrapped gigs included Mad Cool Festival in Madrid (where they’ll also be replaced by Muse), two huge UK shows and other stops at festivals around Europe.
Now, Muse have joined the bill, marking an additional date in a string of huge summer shows later this year. Alongside Linkin Park, KoRn, and Scorpions, they’ll also play at French metal festival Hellfest, which takes place between June 19-22.
Then, they’ll lead Norway’s Tons Of Rock festival alongside Green Day and Avenged Sevenfold across June 25 and 28, before headlining the Polish festival Open’er on July 4.
The dates come amid speculation of new music from the band, with bassist Chris Wolstenholme teasing that they are preparing to make a new album soon. On The Leona Graham Podcast, Wolstenholme said fans could expect a new record in 2026 – however, there is a slight obstacle in the way as the band currently aren’t signed to a label.
“We will [sign to a label], obviously. I think we’re gonna start work on the next record fairly soon,” he shared. “I think for the last few albums we’ve been with Warner and we’ve extended after each album. We may do the same again; we may go with a new label, who knows.”
The last album they shared was 2022’s ‘Will Of The People’, which NME rated four stars when it dropped.
“He may have been broad in his previous political swipes, but Bellamy’s ire here locks in step with a growing public mood, bubbling with a very relatable anger toward those who stand in the way of us tackling humanity’s overwhelming crises. ‘The chances are turning, the future is ours’ he proclaims. Just show us where to enlist.”
NOS Alive 2024 saw performances from Pearl Jam, Dua Lipa, The Smashing Pumpkins, Sum 41, Arlo Parks and more.
Reneé Rapp is seen as a “huge inspiration” by SZA.
The 25-year-old artist performed SZA’s Good Days in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, accompanied by two acoustic guitarists and a harp player. SZA, 35, was deeply moved by the rendition.
She posted a short video of the moment on Instagram Stories and wrote: “Renee is a HUGE inspiration, energy, voice spirit.”
During her chat with the BBC, Renee shared her thoughts about the track. She said: “I mean, I love SZA. I mean, she was one of my favorite artists in high school. And she's remained one of my favorite artists to this day. I think she's amazing. She's also, I mean, she's an incredible songwriter, but I think because she has so much swag. People don't realize how good of a singer she is. She's a fantastic vocalist and is really, really, really articulate. And I don't cover a lot of songs anymore. So I wanted to cover something that was, like, slightly challenging and also really vocally impressive, and frankly, hard for me to do.”
Renee is currently in the middle of promoting her second album, Bite Me, and opened up about how much more enjoyable it was to create compared to her first project.
She explained: “I mean, I feel like everything was incredibly different. I stopped listening to people that don't make music, because if you don't make music, then why the hell am I listening to you. And I also think the biggest difference, I think I just got a lot better. I think I have just become a better songwriter. I think I understand how to make pop music now in a way that I didn't really before. And I was very sure about what this album was and thematically, what it needed.
“So I felt like I was quite like, headstrong in like, what was gonna work and what wasn't. Because, nobody knows something better than yourself. I think a lot of things were different. I also just, like, had a lot of fun making it, like, I made it with like, three people, mostly, like, it was always like, four of us in the studio all the time, and we got so close, and some of us were already so close. So it was also just like a mess. It was such a mess, like we were just tweaking every day. It was so fun. And I don't think I enjoyed making the first one as much.”
