London Latin Music festival La Linea, hailed by the Financial Times as being the place where “the city’s thriving and genre-blending Latin Music scene is celebrated”, will mark its milestone 25th anniversary next year with its broadest and most ambitious line-up to date. Returning to venues across the capital from 22nd April – 5th May 2025, the festival will affirm its longstanding reputation for combining global Latin icons with the very best emerging musicians and has today announced the first raft of names confirmed to perform.
Joining the line-up for La Linea 25 is Grammy-winning Buena Vista Social Club star, and one of the most renowned Cuban artists of all time, Eliades Ochoa who’ll be performing tracks from his new album Guajiro as well as back catalogue classics including ‘Chan Chan’ and ‘Candela’. Eliades returns to the UK on 22nd April for a show at the Barbican following his sold-out performance at KOKO in 2023. On 1st May, La Linea welcomes 23-year-old Mexican Latin Grammy winner Ed Maverick who will present a premiere of his new album “La Nube en el Jardín”. The folk singer-songwriter gained international attention for his hit single ‘Párteme la Cara’, which reached the top 5 in the Spanish Single Charts and has sold nearly one million copies worldwide, and this exclusive show at Union Chapel in Islington will be one of only three European dates in 2025 and Maverick’s only UK show of the year.
The Jazz Café is set to showcase Puerto Rican rap sensation Villano Antillano, rapidly becoming known for her blend of Latin rhythms with sharp social commentary, and being a prominent voice for the trans community – her NPR Tiny Desk performance recently gained over 1.2M views on YouTube (HERE). Already a phenomenon in his native Spain, Rodrigo Cuevas has carved a career as one of the most successful Spanish artists of the 21st century having been awarded the National Prize for Current Music in 2023 and the Arcoíris (Rainbow) Prize from the Ministry of Equality in 2022 amongst other prestigious accolades. His latest project La Romería is fuelled by humour, social criticism and Asturian culture and will be available to experience live as part of La Linea this year at Islington Assembly Hall on 23rd April.
The festival has also confirmed Brazilian powerhouse outfit Francisco, el Hombre for a farewell show at the Jazz Café on 26th April. The five-piece rock band blend Brazilian traditions with Afro-Latin rhythms, psychedelic punk-rock and electro-punk creating a sound unlike any other. London based multi-instrumentalist and LGBTQ+ rights activist Alex Etchart makes a welcome return to La Linea after a sold out show in 2023 and will be presenting his new project in a double bill with the Argentinian composer and producer Juan Inaki. Connecting dual-heritage folk roots with prog-rock electronica, Queer Utópico is at SOAS on 30th April.
Making her UK debut at Hootananny Brixton on 1st May, Portuguese singer-songwriter and producer Ana Lua Caiano is joined by special guest Guatemalan/Swiss singer Baby Volcano for a show combining elements of electronic sounds with Latin rhythms and hip-hop alongside a fusion of Spanish, Portuguese and French lyrics. Award-winning Spanish singer-songwriter Muerdo, whose songs have amassed over 150 million streams, is set to perform at Oslo in Hackney and will be playing tracks from his most current release Sinvergüenza which features a collaboration with one of this year’s La Linea headliners Eliades Ochoa.
On 3rd May, Moth Club presents Buenos Aires based singer-songwriter Juana Aguirre whose work crosses between Latin American folklore and experimental/alternative sounds. Juana recently opened for artists including BadBadNotGood and Alice Phoebe Lou positioning herself as one of the most promising avant-garde artists in the current South American music scene. Additional names will be announced in due course.
Tickets are on sale from 12pm on Friday 14th November www.lalineafestival.com.
