OVO Hydro, Glasgow
Showcasing chart-topping album The Boy Who Played the Harp, Dave charismatically switches between heavy beats, rock-show grandeur and searching introspection

As he recalls from tonight’s stage, the first time London rapper Dave played in Glasgow he was a teenager, and there were 350 people in the audience. Now 27, he has enough hits to fill arenas, and the charisma to both thrill and move each one of the thousands here.

His first UK tour in four years is in support of last year’s album The Boy Who Played the Harp, on which he perfected the technical skill and introspective complexity that he’s known for. The show starts with two tracks from the album: for History, handwritten lyrics are projected on screen as Dave weaves between his band on the diamond-shaped stage; for No Weapons, his deft flow is complemented by widescreen, organic drum fills. These lush, open arrangements darken and tighten for 2021 single Verdansk, its deep bassline throbbing in time with blasts of pyrotechnics. We’re transported to the club for bouncy early cuts Thiago Silva and Funky Friday, before Both Sides of a Smile invokes the bombast of a 90s rock show, with Dave playing an elevated grand piano surrounded by dry ice.

The 26-year-old dominates in Manchester, landing the night’s biggest prizes as Rosé, Wolf Alice and Mark Ronson also take top honours

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Olivia Dean was the big winner at the 2026 Brit awards, taking home awards for artist of the year, pop act, song of the year for her Sam Fender duet Rein Me In, and album of the year for The Art of Loving.

In less than a year, Dean has leaped to the forefront of British pop thanks to The Art of Loving, her second album. With songs that get to the heart of the joys and frustrations of casual modern dating, she is enormously relatable, while her sophisticated and cosmopolitan songcraft, deftly finessing styles such as bossa nova, trip-hop, neo-soul and jazz together, has given her an unusually broad and cross-generational appeal.

Singer-songwriters each receive five nominations at British music industry’s flagship awards – where Jarvis Cocker will return 30 years after Michael Jackson incident

Olivia Dean and Lola Young have cemented their breakthroughs to the front rank of British pop by topping the nominations for the 2026 Brit awards.

The singer-songwriters earned five nominations each. Dean is nominated for artist and album of the year, pop act, and has two chances at winning song of the year for Man I Need and Rein Me In, the latter thanks to a guest spot with Sam Fender.

Raye, Deftones and Yungblud do UK tours, Jill Scott returns for more neo-soul, and the classical world gears up to celebrate Hungarian composer György Kurtág at 100

• More from the 2026 culture preview

Seventeen years on from the release of her debut single, Florence Welch finds herself in an intriguingly strong position: while most of her early 00s indie peers are forgotten or in reduced circumstances, she is a major influence on pop, from Ethel Cain to the Last Dinner Party to Chappell Roan. Her recent album Everybody Scream was a strong restatement of her theatrical approach – with more light and shade than you might expect – but it’s on stage that she really comes into her own.
• UK tour begins 6 February at the SSE Arena, Belfast