James Blake has added an intriguing name to his Australian tour this December, announcing Zimbabwean-Australian artist Xmunashe as special guest for three shows, including a night on the Sydney Opera House Forecourt.
For the London-based rapper, singer, producer and songwriter, it’s something of a homecoming. Xmunashe joins Blake at Brisbane’s Fortitude Music Hall on December 1, Sydney Opera House Forecourt on December 2 and Melbourne’s Margaret Court Arena on December 5.
Xmunashe has built a cult following without releasing a single solo track on streaming platforms. Instead, the 25-year-old has been selling out shows in Sydney, Melbourne, London and Paris on the strength of performances that refuse to follow a script.
Piano, drums, hip-hop, jazz and improvisation all find their way into his sets. At one London performance, he dismantled The Notorious B.I.G.’s ‘Juicy’ at the piano, rebuilding it with a cellist and live painter before trading verses with rapper Cap1talA. It’s the kind of unpredictable approach that makes him a particularly interesting match for Blake.
Born to Zimbabwean parents and raised between Botswana, Australia, Switzerland and France, Xmunashe draws from an equally scattered musical upbringing. Zimbabwean music and hip-hop sit alongside Tame Impala, Hiatus Kaiyote and The Avalanches among his influences. Even his approach to releasing music is unconventional, with his debut mixtape available exclusively on vinyl at his shows rather than through streaming services.
Blake, meanwhile, returns to Australia for the first time since 2019, touring behind his self-released 2026 album Trying Times, his highest-charting record to date. Across seven studio albums, the Mercury Prize and Grammy-winning artist has moved between electronic music, soul, hip-hop and alternative R&B, while collaborating with everyone from Frank Ocean and Kendrick Lamar to Beyoncé, SZA and ROSALÍA.
The pairing makes plenty of sense. Both artists are interested in what happens when genres collide, and neither seems particularly concerned with staying inside the lines. For Australian audiences, the tour offers a chance to catch Blake’s latest chapter while discovering an artist who has built his reputation almost entirely outside the usual music industry machinery.
Tour dates
- Tuesday 1 December – Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane
- Wednesday 2 December – Sydney Opera House Forecourt, Sydney
- Saturday 5 December – Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne
