Ben Beaumont-Thomas 

O Canada! Céline Dion and Drake each announce major UK concerts

Singer will play only European show of 2019 in Hyde Park, while rapper announces a UK arena tour, including six nights at London’s O2 Arena
  
  

Bangers on … Celine Dion will play London’s British Summer Time festival.
Bangers on … Céline Dion will play London’s British Summer Time festival. Photograph: Ian Laidlaw/Mushroom Creative

Céline Dion is to play her only European date of 2019 at London’s Hyde Park this summer, with her compatriot Drake also announcing a major UK arena tour.

On Friday 5 July, Dion headlines the British Summer Time festival, announced in typically kooky fashion by saying: “I’ve got a big craving for some bangers and mash, and sticky toffee pudding, definitely, so I’m heading over to London this summer.” Tickets go on sale at 9am on Tuesday 29 January, with presale tickets available from 23 January.

It will be her first performance in the UK since summer 2017. The concert will come shortly after she completes her Las Vegas concert residency, which began in 2011 and will close on 8 June.

Two other concerts have already been announced for the festival: Robbie Williams on Sunday 14 July, and a co-headline concert with Florence + the Machine and the National on Saturday 13 July.

Another co-headline concert, with Bob Dylan and Neil Young, was previously announced, but after Neil Young criticised the festival’s sponsorship from Barclaycard on grounds of being a “fossil fuel entity”, the show will still go ahead but no longer as part of British Summer Time.

Drake, meanwhile, will tour the UK in March and April as part of his 22-date Assassination Vacation tour across Europe. He plays two nights at Manchester Arena on March 10 and 11, three at Birmingham Resorts World Arena on 26-28 March, and six at London’s O2 Arena, on dates between 1 and 9 April, all supported by Tory Lanez. Tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday 25 January.

Drake had three of the top 15 biggest songs of 2018 in the UK, with God’s Plan, Nice For What and In My Feelings all reaching No 1; his album Scorpion was the fifth biggest of the year, and he was recently nominated for a Brit award for international male.

 

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