KAE TEMPEST
Australia June 2026
Handsome Tours are proud to present Kae Tempest!
One of the most vital voices in contemporary music and literature, Kae Tempest will return to Australia this June for a highly anticipated national tour, presented by Handsome Tours.
The tour follows the release of Kae’s extraordinary new album Self Titled — a bold, intimate and expansive body of work that stands as both a love letter to a younger self and a dialogue between past, present and future. Interwoven with the people, places and experiences that have shaped him, Self Titled navigates resistance, doubt and hope, tracing the liberation that comes with radical self-acceptance.
The new music nods to hip hop’s golden eras and alternative soul, yet the pulse is unmistakably Kae — urgent, poetic and fearless.
Collaborations across the record expand its reach, including a feature from Mercury Prize-winning trio Young Fathers and a luminous appearance from London-based soul artist Tawiah, along with an appearance from Annie Lennox on vocals. The music crosses many themes, confronting neurodiversity and trauma with dexterity and vulnerability, psychology and society.
A lifelong Londoner raised in Lewisham, Kae Tempest has forged a singular career spanning music, poetry, theatre and fiction. From busking as a teenage MC to becoming a Mercury Prize-nominated recording artist, Sunday Times bestselling novelist and acclaimed playwright, his work has consistently bridged the personal and the political. He remains the only artist to have opened a play at London’s National Theatre one summer and performed at Glastonbury Festival the next.
Coinciding with the Australian tour is the release of Kae’s new book this April — a deeply personal and expansive work that continues his exploration of identity, creativity and connection, further cementing his status as one of the most compelling storytellers of his generation.
A decade on from his Mercury-nominated debut Everybody Down, Kae reflects: “This album has its own life force, it knows where it wants to go. I’ve just got to follow it for a bit and see what happens.”
Australian audiences can expect a performance that is immersive, electrifying and profoundly human — an artist at the height of their powers, meeting each crowd in the shared space between vulnerability and defiance.
Tour Dates
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