Blanks

In the organizer's words:

Live Nation Presents

Blanks:

Futuristic nostalgia

Dutch artist defines new zeitgeist for 21st century pop culture

Live in Cologne, Munich, Berlin and Hamburg at the end of November

Blanks, alias Simon de Wit , from the small Dutch town of Vleuten-De Meern, took ten years between his first video on YouTube and the release of his enchanting debut album "Nothing Lasts Forever And That's OK". It was released in 2021 and became a huge (radio) hit with our Dutch neighbors, flanked by successful singles such as "Don't Stop", "Wave" and "What You Do to Me". His subsequent first own headlining tour in the fall of 2021 took him across Europe and made him a new, well-known face of modern, multimedia pop culture beyond the social media and YouTube galaxies. With a view to another major European tour at the end of 2024, it can be assumed that the follow-up to his remarkably successful debut album will also be released in 2024; however, official confirmation of this is still pending. Regardless of this question, you can already look forward to four wonderfully entertaining German concerts between November 23 and 29, 2024, with stops in Cologne, Munich, Berlin and Hamburg.

Simon de Wit has been making music for himself at home for a long time. Although not his own, he has always enjoyed recording surprising cover versions of songs by other artists. But before the now 27-year-old devoted himself entirely to music, he first studied information technology at the University of Groningen. In 2013, he established his own YouTube channel "Music By Blanks", which currently has around 1.3 million followers. His eye-catching cover versions found a wide variety of followers, and he was appreciated by pop, hip-hop, 80s new wave and R'n'B listeners alike. Time and again, he created videos that went viral, most notably his cover of Post Malone's "Better Now ", which received over 24 million plays on Spotify alone.

Encouraged by this, Blanks began composing his own songs in 2018 - with similar success. Around the release of his first EP with original material, published in 2020 under the title "Cheap Sodas and Ice Cream Kisses", he performed at the renowned Eurosonic Norderslaag festival - and was awarded the "Best New Artist" prize at the accompanying pop gala.

In 2021, he released his first long-playing record "Nothing Lasts Forever And That's OK", which he did not create in a vacuum. Instead, he sought to strike a balance between nostalgia and futurism in order to make a name for himself in the music world. His often light-footed but substantial songs combine pure, tried-and-tested 80s electronics with fresh vocal techniques and sound almost retro-modern. While other tracks initially seem like ironically refracted satires on current stylistic and aesthetic trends and then subtly prove through elegant deerpess that there is nothing ironic about them at all. Whether with his cover songs and video shorts on YouTube or as a passionate interpreter of his own compositions on stage: it is precisely this surprising and unexpected aspect of him that makes his work exciting and extremely entertaining time and time again. And why not: because the world is open to Blanks and welcomes him and his sound with open arms, somewhere between an 80s feel and ultra-modern pop music.