Sheffield's own Self Esteem, aka Rebecca Lucy Taylor, has today announced her biggest tour to date, with 14 shows across the UK and Ireland this autumn, including two nights each at Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom, Manchester Academy, Bristol Beacon and London’s O2 Academy Brixton, as well as a stop in her hometown at Sheffield's Utilita Arena.
The tour comes in support of her upcoming album A Complicated Woman, due for release on 25th April. The album has already been hailed as “her best yet” by The Guardian. Impressive considering the album is the long-awaited follow-up to 2021's BRIT and Mercury Prize nominated LP Prioritise Pleasure.
The album contains all of Taylor’s musical thumbprints – complex thought processes unfolding in real time, an effortless knack of exposing the feelings women are required to labour under – but set on a larger, brighter landscape that is nothing short of exhilarating. Running through the album is a jubilant choir constructed of dozens and dozens of mostly female voices - “a community of people. I want you to hear and feel the connection” Taylor says - including close friends, her band and collaborators.
Along with the tour dates, Taylor released a third single from the upcoming LP in 'If Not Now, It's Soon' which was partly inspired by Taylor’s years before her rise to fame – a time of hypersexuality, booze and self-destruction that precipitated the creation of Self Esteem. The single joins previously praised releases of 'Focus Is Power' and '69' to give us the most tantalising teaser of what A Complicated Woman will offer.
Kicking off in Birmingham at the O2 Academy, the tour will take in much of the UK and Ireland over it's run but will culminate in what is sure to be the highlight with a homecoming gig at Sheffield's Utilita Arena on Saturday 18th October, by far the biggest venue on the tour.
Fans can pre-order A Complicated Woman to gain access to a pre-sale for tickets, a venue presale for the Sheffield date will also be live via the Utilita Arena Sheffield newsletter on Thursday, 27 March 2025 at 10am, ahead of general sale at 10am this Friday 28 March.
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