Elton John will inaugurate Apple's new Apple Music Hall in London next week, headlining the opening night of the 600-capacity venue at Battersea Power Station. The performance, scheduled for Monday 28 September, marks the launch of a space designed to blend the atmosphere of an intimate club with the technical capabilities of a large arena.
The first run of shows will continue with Baby Keem on 2 October and Skye Newman on 7 October, before Troye Sivan, Arlo Parks and Burna Boy perform later in the month. Chase & Status will take the stage on 26 November, and Charli XCX will close the initial announced schedule on 2 December. Tickets for the first three shows — Elton John, Baby Keem and Skye Newman — go on sale at 9am on Monday 28 September.
The venue, announced earlier this week, features a reconfigurable 38-foot-wide stage, a 48-speaker Spatial Audio system and two dedicated recording and mixing studios. It is also wired for more than 16 cameras and includes its own broadcast control room, allowing concerts to be recorded and livestreamed globally. The design aims to offer artists and audiences a flexible environment that can shift between club-style intimacy and arena-scale production.
For Elton John, the opening-night appearance is another selective live show since he stepped away from regular touring. His Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour concluded at Stockholm's Tele2 Arena in July 2023 after more than 300 shows, and he later described retirement from touring as «the most fantastic thing in the world». He has continued to make occasional appearances, including a surprise turn with Dua Lipa at her orchestral Royal Albert Hall concert in October 2024, where they performed their hit «Cold Heart».
In March, John and Brandi Carlile played a one-off show at the London Palladium to showcase their collaborative album «Who Believes In Angels?», mixing new material with classics such as «Tiny Dancer», «Your Song» and «Bennie And The Jets». The pair then performed together on Saturday Night Live the following month. John later headlined the Singapore Grand Prix in October 2025 and paid tribute to Brian Wilson with a rendition of «God Only Knows» at the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony the following month. Earlier this month, he also headlined Rock In Rio in Brazil.
When that show was announced last year, John said: «The energy these big one-off shows have been giving me since I stopped touring is unbeatable.» The Apple Music Hall set will not quite be the final word on his Farewell Yellow Brick Road era, either. In July, John announced two surprise Mexico City concerts for 2 and 3 October, resurrecting dates that had originally been lost during the pandemic.
Charli XCX, meanwhile, released «Music, Fashion, Film» in July and is currently on its accompanying headline tour. The album received a four-star review from NME, which called it «a snapshot of an artist in the thick of it» and praised its «celebration of art – and its capacity to let you transcend your bounds for something new».
The opening of Apple Music Hall adds a new performance venue to London's music landscape, with a focus on broadcast and recording technology that could extend the reach of its concerts beyond the physical audience. The initial lineup combines established names with newer acts, suggesting a programming strategy that spans generations and genres.