UK rapper Stormzy is the third act to play Belsonic this year as he comes to Ormeau Park on Thursday 20th June.
This will be Stormzy’s, (whose real name is Michael) first gig in Belfast since he played a sell-out show in Limelight in 2017. It has been quite the rise for the Croydon-born artist since then. He has already won 2 Brit awards, 6 MOBO’s and he will become the first grime artist to headline Glastonbury when he plays the festival six days after Belsonic. This is after he became the first grime artist to have a number one album in the UK, with his debut album ‘Gang Signs and Prayers’ reaching the milestone after its release in February 2017.
The album includes some of his most famous singles such as ‘Shut Up’, ‘Big for Your Boots’ and ‘Blinded by Your Grace’ and it won ‘Best British Album’ at last year’s Brit Awards whilst Stormzy had also previously picked up the ‘Best British Male Solo Artist’ gong at the 2017 edition of the ceremony. He has collaborated with some high profile artists, most notably Little Mix on the song ‘Power’ which won ‘Best Song’ at the Global Awards in 2017.
His growing popularity has been highlighted by the return of his own ‘Merky Festival’ at Ibiza Rocks Hotel for the third year running, where he will be supported by a host of the hottest UK grime artists in two sellout shows on 1st-2nd July.
Stormzy took a break from making music after the success of ‘Gang Signs and Prayers’ to set up his own ‘Merky’ record label, ‘Merky’ publishing company, and to release his own book ‘Rise Up’ last year. After almost two years out, he returned with a vengeance in April with the release of his latest single ‘Vossi Bop’. The track shot straight to number one in the UK Singles Chart, the first song of Stormzy’s to do so.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BpoxszTHs1h/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
‘Vossi Bop’ also had 12.7 million streams in its debut week on sale, the highest ever by a rapper and astonishingly the fifth-highest of all time. He followed that up with his recent collaboration with MoStack in ‘Shine’, released last week and many fans are expecting a second album to land at some stage later this year.
Stormzy is supported on the night by fellow UK rapper Fredo who had a number one single last year when he teamed up with Dave for ‘Funky Friday’. At the beginning of this year, the grime artist then released his debut album ‘Third Avenue’ having previously released two mixtapes which featured other stars such as Not3s, Asco and JME.
If you’re a grime fan you will not want to miss this show as two of the finest in the industry take to the stage. Tickets are still available to buy from Ticketmaster where they are priced at £30 plus booking fee.