Organisers are expanding the group of Open’er Festival 2019 artists! Giants of dance music, hip-hop from different corners of the USA, British soul discovery, revelation of contemporary jazz, one of the biggest reggaeton stars in the world, rock rebels and phenomenal new flamenco artist – SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA, G-EAZY, JORJA SMITH, KAMASI WASHINGTON, ROSALIA, J BALVIN, IDLES and FLATBUSH ZOMBIES join the line-up!
When in March last year, Axwell, Steve Angelo and Sebastian Ingrosso played their first joint show in 5 years, the SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA fans were waiting for next confirmed concerts, impatiently shuffling their feet. No wonder – SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA has been synonymous with dance madness for a decade. The hits “Do not You Worry Child”, “One” and “Save The World” cemented their position as giants of electronic dance music and became an inspiration for a whole generation of creators and fans of EDM. Now they come back with concerts and announce new music, putting aside all individual projects. Organisers are happy to announce that they will also come to Gdynia! Expect a spectacular show with SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA for the grand final at Open’er Festival 2019 which will be their first joint performance in Poland.
The latest announcement could not miss something for hip-hop fans. Gerald Earl Gillum, commonly known as G-EAZY, had no doubts what he wanted to do in life from the beginning. Going to college, he chose New Orleans – a place with huge musical traditions to help develop his passion. He quickly began producing music, which, combined with hip-hop, resulted in several mixtapes – among them the breakthrough track “Endless Summer” from 2011. The growing local popularity of the rapper gave him the opportunity to perform in front of the biggest stars, like Drake and Lil Wayne. Shortly thereafter, he had his own US tour, selling concerts from New York, through Seattle, to San Francisco and Los Angeles. The following 5 years were marked by the rapper’s great creativity, bringing as many as 4 studio albums. Today he has recorded international hits like “Me, Myself & I”, “Good Life”, “No Limit” and “Him & I” and cooperation with such stars as ASAP Rocky, Snoop Dogg and Cardi B.
Time for the first woman of this announcement. An extremely talented singer, dancer, songwriter, producer and actress – a musical revelation of the last year and an artist, next to which it is difficult to pass by indifferently. Since the debut of “Los ángeles”, ROSALÍA has been praised for the innovative combination of Spanish tradition and modern sound. However, last year’s album “El Mal Querer” confirmed that we are dealing with a real phenomenon. The publishing house brought her 2 Latin Grammy awards. On the other hand, the extremely successful single “Malamente” was on the third place in the Top 100 list of the Pitchfork website, which also awarded the video clip with the title “Video Of The Year”. Her mix of flamenco and pop for two years has attracted the attention of fans, critics and artists from all kinds of music – from Diplo, Charlie XCX, Gorillaz, through Billie Eilish, J Balvin, to Pharrell Williams (their song has been announced this year). No wonder ROSALÍA found herself in the prestigious BBC Sound of 2019 and is called a phenomenon by many critics.
A similar phenomenon, but in jazz music is KAMASI WASHINGTON. In 2015, when he released the three-disc album “The Epic”, he was hailed as a revelation. Together with his band The Next Step, he presented jazz interspersed with elements of hip-hop and classical soul, thanks to which his progressive jazz music, which escaped the standard definition of jazz, went to a wide, young audience. The publishing house became the driving force for further experimentation and cooperation with successive artists who were surprising for this genre – Kendrick Lamar, John Legend, Run The Jewels, and recently even Florence And The Machine. His next album “Heaven and Earth” was received with great enthusiasm by the critics. He quickly found himself in the Best New Music section of the “Pitchfork” website, and the words of recognition flowed among others from “Variety”, “GQ” and “MOJO”. This success cemented his position in the first division of the most popular jazz musicians in the world.
I feel that all the doors are open to me, I can go to different cities around the world, play everything I like and people are always willing to play. It was my dream.
Kamasi Washington – Billboard
The youngest artist in this juxtaposition certainly fulfills her dream. When a teen JORJA SMITH played her father a demo of “Blue Lights” a few years ago, he just replied with a smile: “Nice song, good lyrics, and now go to sleep.” Probably none of them expected that confusion soon will make this song in the world of R & B and soul. After posting the song on the site Soundcloud in January 2016, her talent immediately became a loud topic among the stars. It was praised by Skrillex, Stormzy and Drake, among others. The following months were building the atmosphere of waiting for her debut album – an international tour with Bruno Mars, the first sold-out solo concerts and the first statuette at the Brit Awards. In 2018, we had her debut “Lost & Found”. Although most of the songs contained on it were written between 16 and 19 years of age, the album gained recognition among other things due to its artistic maturity – both in the musical and text layers.
I have small cousins who draw me an example, I grew up listening to honest artists like Amy Winehouse, not croak or vulgar music, I want to pass on this honesty to other people.
Jorja Smith
From somewhat different musical milieu emerged from Colombia José Álvaro Osorio Balvin, better known as J BALVIN. He successfully combines the tradition of Puerto Rican reggaeton with the rhythms of Colombian pop and hip-hop. From the publication of the breakthrough album “La Familia” (2013), after last year’s “Vibras” he won several dozen awards, including 3 Latin Grammy and Billboard Latin Music Awards. He has over 50 million fans in social media, and his clips have been watched in total over 10 billion times. No wonder that with this popularity J BALVIN has become one of the most sought after collaborators by the giants of modern pop. Among them were Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, Pharrell Williams, Ariana Grande, Major Lazer, Daddy Yankee, and Camila Cabello. However, thanks to the participation in the recording of the piece “I Like It” with Cardi B and Bad Bunny for the first time he hit the top of the American Billboard.
It’s time for rock! For a long time, there was no group on the international rock scene who used their music in such a harsh and honest way to express rebellion. Regardless of whether they touch social themes (mourning, definition of masculinity, complicated interpersonal relations) or political (Brexit, populism and racism), IDLES do it uncompromisingly. The group was founded in 2009 on the initiative of vocalist Joe Talbot and bassist Adam Devonshire, and eventually it grew to 5 people. For several years, they searched for their language to release their debut album “Brutalism” in 2017. Although people have been repeatedly trying to classify them as punk-rockers or hardcore, Joe Talbot regularly rejects any attempt to sew a patch. As they admit, their latest album “Joy as an Act of Resistance” is “encouragement to be sensitive, to the breath and celebration of our differences, to a bold smile in this new, busted world”.
At the end of the announcement is some hip-hop from Brooklyn. Meechy Darko, Zombie Juice and Erick Elliott met and became friends in Brooklyn’s elementary school in New York. Common interests of the boys led in 2010 to the creation of the hip-hop group FLATBUSH ZOMBIES. Their popularity began to increase significantly in 2012, after their first large club appearances and the publication of the clip for the piece “Thug Waffle”. Since then, almost every year brought a new release – mixtapes “D.R.U.G.S” and “BetterOffDead”, a joint project with The Underachievers as Clockwork Indigo, and finally the debut album “3001: A Laced Odyssey”. Last year, Flatbush Zombies released the second, well-received album “Vacation In Hell”. One of his most important features was undoubtedly not flattering tastes. “In the era of sudden change in genres, Meecha Darko, Erick ‘The Architect’ Elliott and Zombie Juice remain traditionalists, removed from the epicenter of rap, they feel very comfortable off the beaten track. On ‘Vacation In Hell’ they rape for themselves and nobody else ‘, rightly noted on the “Pitchfork” website.