Next year's Belladrum acts announced

BELLADRUM Tartan Heart Festival ensures good times for the 2020 festival with news that Nile Rodgers & Chic will headline, also top Scottish voice Emeli Sande, with Britpop survivors and treasured rockers Shed Seven, Passenger plus trad music stars Tide Lines also included in the first batch of names revealed.

American Nile Rodgers – the legendary multi- Grammy Award winning composer, producer, arranger and guitarist – is known for his work in a packed music career with Chic, Sister Sledge, Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams.

Known for chart-topping hits like Le Freak, (the biggest selling single in the history of Atlantic Records!) and also musical innovation, he has worked on music with some of the music world’s biggest names – such as David Bowie, Diana Ross, and Madonna on tracks that have sold over 500 million albums and 75 million singles worldwide.

And his collaborations include a range of artists, from Daft Punk and Avicii, Sigala and Disclosure, to Sam Smith reflect the vanguard of contemporary music.

Chic’s hits include Everybody Dance, He’s The Greatest Dancer and I Want Your Love.

With over 340 million video views, 19 million singles sold including three number one UK singles and over six million albums sold, Emeli Sande, from Alford in Aberdeenshire, has also won four Brit Awards (critics choice, best album and female solo twice). In 2018, Emeli was awarded an MBE for services to music.

Alongside her solo career, the singer has regularly provided guest vocals for other artists including the huge hits Professor Green (Read All About It), Labrinth (Beneath Your Beautiful) and David Guetta (What I Did for Love). She also performed at both the opening and closing ceremonies of the London Olympics and at the White House for Barack Obama.

Belladrum event organiser Dougie Brown said: “We are delighted to announce Nile Rodgers & Chic and Emeli Sande as our first headliners for Belladrum 2020.

“Nile Rodgers & Chic have been at the top of our wishlist for many years and we are certain their set will go down as one of Bella’s standout moments.

“Emeli Sande played the festival’s Grassroots tent in 2011 when she was starting out and to have seen the journey she has been on and to see come back and headline the festival’s Thursday night will be another special moment at Bella.”

Also named have been Leeds band Shed Seven

Passenger – whose hit Let Her Go has now reached over one billion plays on Spotify – will grace Belladrum this year.

And others revealed today include trad heroes Tide Lines, Belfast punk royalty Stiff Little Fingers, The Magic Numbers, Colonel Mustard & The Dijon Five, electronic Afro-Funk outfit Ibibio Sound Machine, Scottish supergroup Mànran and frontman of The View, Kyle Falconer Frontman.

Also lining up for Belladrum 2020 are: BBC Music Sound Of 2016 nominee Billie Marten; winners of the 2019 Trad Awards Belhaven Bursary The Kinnaris Quartet; Norwegian folk float-pop trio I See Rivers; closing the Grassroots Stage on the Thursday night will be RhythmNReel; Highland singer-songwriter James Mackenzie; Bella favourites The Dangleberries; Esperanza, the nine-piece ska collective from Glasgow; The Roov, who provided the soundtrack to our official 2019 after-movie; the Calum Macphail Trio,Tweed, Schiehallion, Journey North and Fun Box with lots more acts to be announced over the coming months.

Tickets for the 2020 festival sold out in a record-breaking 72 hours back in the summer.

But a final 1,000 tickets have been held back and will be put on sale on Monday, January 6 at 10am along with any returns via Skiddle’s RE:SELL initiative. And all tickets will be available from www.skiddle.com/festivals/belladrum

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