Australian musician and author Joe Matera will release The Making Of ABBA - The Story Behind The Band's 1975 Breakthrough Album on 30 October 2025, a detailed exploration of the record that lifted the Swedish quartet from European favourites to global pop innovators. The book charts the creative, musical and historical arc of ABBA's self-titled third album, a release that defined the sound of the group and set the stage for their international ascendancy through the second half of the 1970s.

British rap innovator Dave will return to Australia in June 2026, with a new arena tour celebrating his chart-topping album The Boy Who Played The Harp. The visit marks his first national run since 2021, when he toured We're All Alone In This Together to sold-out crowds and cemented his place as one of the defining storytellers of his generation.

The team behind Pod Save America will visit Australia and New Zealand for the first time in February 2026, as Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor, and Dan Pfeiffer present the Hopefully Just Visiting Tour. The four former Obama staffers have become central figures in political commentary since launching the podcast in 2017, and the tour will deliver their trademark candour about United States politics, the global rise of right-wing extremism, and the importance of civic engagement in turbulent times.

The Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition has unveiled its 2025 Top 50 Finalists, marking a historic year for the prestigious initiative named for legendary Australian writers Harry Vanda and George Young. More than 4,000 songs were submitted from 52 countries, a milestone that confirms the competition's position as one of the most recognised international platforms for contemporary songwriters.

Swedish post-punk disruptors Viagra Boys will return to Australia and New Zealand in January with The Infinite Anxiety Tour, a run already generating intense demand, with three shows sold out and remaining tickets moving fast. The tour will bring the group's chaotic and cathartic live presence back to fans who first embraced the band's unfiltered mix of satire, noise, and dark humour when they emerged from Stockholm in 2015. With the countdown now underway, Viagra Boys have confirmed the acts joining them on the road across both countries.

SongMakers, the collaborative songwriting program designed to develop young Australian creators, will undergo a significant expansion in New South Wales in 2026 and 2027, following a major funding commitment from Sound NSW. The initiative, operated by APRA AMCOS, has become a core development platform for emerging talent, with a track record of embedding professional creative practice inside Australian schools.

Beloved Welsh tenor and broadcaster Aled Jones MBE will return to Australia in 2026 for an intimate national tour that promises music, stories, and nostalgia. The tour, his eighth down under, will visit regional and capital venues across the country, giving audiences close-up access to the songs and memories that have shaped his four decade career.

For twenty years Jerome Reuter, operating under the moniker Rome, has remained one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary dark folk. His meticulous approach to concept driven songwriting, paired with an enduring commitment to literature, history and the philosophical left field, has attracted a devoted global following. Fans from Berlin to Los Angeles, from Sydney to Saigon, and from Lisbon to Kyiv have embraced his work with a rare intensity, forged through relentless touring and a steady stream of narrative rich albums.

Boney M Featuring Maizie Williams will return to Australia in April 2026 for The Final Curtain Tour, a national run that will celebrate the enduring legacy of one of the most successful disco groups of all time. The tour will feature all the major hits, including Rasputin, Daddy Cool, Sunny, Rivers Of Babylon, Ma Baker, Gotta Go Home and Brown Girl In The Ring, performed with a full live band.

Superheaven will return to Australia in April and May for their first local shows in more than ten years, the tour pairing the Pennsylvanian heavyweights with the genre-bending Angel Du$t. The run brings two of the most forceful voices from the grunge revival and melodic hardcore movement together for a series of high-energy dates across five cities. The announcement follows a period of renewed activity for Superheaven, including new music, expanded touring plans and a revived focus on the sound that helped define their rise.

Thaikkudam Bridge, one of India's most dynamic live collectives, will return to Australia in March 2026 with a run of headline shows across Eora, Naarm and Tarndanya. The tour, presented by Blaide.live, will showcase the band's high-intensity fusion of Indian classical traditions, folk influences and hard rock power, delivered through a 15-member ensemble with nine vocalists and six instrumentalists.

Fresh from a stirring starring turn as Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar, acclaimed Australian vocalist Michael Paynter is stripping back the theatrics and volume for a deeply personal new tour. Dubbed the Great Australian Songbook Tour 2026, the run promises intimate performances that re-imagine the nation's most iconic songs with just guitar and piano, alongside a few surprise special guests drawn from Paynter's long career in music.

Bleak Squad, the Melbourne collective formed by Adalita, Mick Harvey, Mick Turner and Marty Brown, have released a new single as they prepare for their largest national run to date. Black & White arrives ahead of an extensive February and March 2026 tour and offers another glimpse of the group's growing creative force, following a breakout year centred on their debut album Strange Love.

Japanese bassist Tetsu Yamauchi, born Yamauchi Tetsuo in Fukuoka in 1946, has died at 79. His death brings to a close a career that bridged Japanese rock, British blues rock, and the global touring circuit.

Kylie Minogue has revived her much-loved festive release ten years after Kylie Christmas first brightened the holiday season. The new edition, Kylie Christmas (Fully Wrapped), marks the second major expansion of the album and delivers a refreshed collection built around the original 2015 release. Kylie has added four new tracks, Hot In December, This Time Of Year, XMAS, and Office Party, offering fans new material after a massive year dominated by her Tension World Tour.

Next year's Eurovision Song Contest has entered its most turbulent phase in decades, as Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and the Netherlands confirm they will boycott the 2026 event in Vienna, after the European Broadcasting Union confirmed Israel is cleared to compete. The decision came during a tightly guarded general assembly in Geneva, where the EBU declined to hold a vote on Israel's participation, a move that triggered immediate withdrawals from several major broadcasters.

A diverse lineup of Australian artists, community advocates and humanitarian organisations will come together at PICA in Port Melbourne, Naarm on Sunday 21 December for A Gathering For Gaza, a one-day fundraising event created to support urgent relief efforts in Gaza. The event will run from 2pm to 11pm and will raise funds for four frontline organisations, with all net profits directed to Olive Kids, PANZMA, PARA and Médecins Sans Frontières Australia.

Jet frontman Nic Cester has stepped into a new creative realm with the release of Getcha!, the lead single from guitarist Thomas Raggi's new album Masquerade, out now. The track unites an unlikely but powerful lineup, bringing together Cester, Måneskin's Raggi, Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith.

Garbage's appearance at Good Things Melbourne has become the most discussed moment of the festival, with Shirley Manson's outburst at a longtime fan sparking widespread debate across the band's community. The confrontation, which unfolded in front of thousands, has divided supporters in a way not seen around the group since their breakthrough years in the mid-90s.

Tenille Arts has entered the next phase of her career with the release of her new single Don't Ruin Flowers, delivered through a fresh global partnership between Dreamcatcher Artists and ONErpm. The track marks the first taste of her forthcoming album, scheduled for announcement in mid-2026, and signals a confident expansion of her creative world after several milestone years on the international stage.

Pierce Brothers will enter 2026 with momentum few Australian acts can match, rising from the success of their fourth studio album Moonrise, released in late 2025, and now preparing for an extensive Australian tour from March through May.

Tim Rogers, newly inducted into the Rock ‘N' Roll Hall of Fame, will return to the stage in March and April 2026 for a rare run of intimate solo dates. The tour, titled Le Charme Defensif, brings the celebrated Australian songwriter into close-quarters rooms across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT, offering a direct connection to a career that has shaped Australian music for more than three decades.

Seventh Wonder Performs Fleetwood Mac, Orchestrated, arrives at the Sydney Opera House for one night only on Saturday 14 February 2026.

The Australian premiere season of A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical has expanded even before opening night. Producers Paul Dainty and TEG Dainty, Ken Davenport and Bob Gaudio have confirmed that overwhelming demand has driven a two-week extension of the Melbourne season, now running through to Sunday 27 September 2026 at the Princess Theatre.

It is officially that time of year again: triple j has opened voting for its iconic Hottest 100 of 2025, with the countdown to be broadcast live on Saturday, 24 January 2026. Fans from around Australia will join the nationwide listening party, tuning in from 12 pm AEDT to relive their favourite tracks of the year.

Lady Gaga delivered a surprise for Melbourne fans at her second Australian show on Saturday night when she finally brought material from her 2020 album Chromatica into the setlist. The pop icon had omitted songs from the album during Friday's opening Melbourne performance, leaving some fans wondering whether Chromatica would feature at all on the Australian leg of the tour. The answer arrived swiftly on night two, and it came with emphasis.

The Tom Petty Estate has announced a surprise release that will excite collectors and long-time followers of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. A highly limited “Cool Blue” vinyl edition of The Live Anthology, From The Vaults Vol. 1 has been pressed in a run of only 2,000 copies, each individually numbered, with all tracks selected by Tom Petty. The new edition provides a rare standalone vinyl issue of a disc that once appeared only as the final bonus CD in a 2009 Best Buy exclusive box set of The Live Anthology.

I'm With Her have released a new three track live EP titled Songs From The Stage: Kansas City, a concise document of the group's 2025 tour and a fresh reminder of the vocal power that has defined the trio since their formation in 2014. The EP captures standout songs from their recently Grammy nominated album Wild And Clear And Blue, including the celebrated single Ancient Light which is nominated for Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots Song.

Swedish melodic metal supergroup Cyhra have returned with a powerful new chapter in their evolving catalogue, releasing the towering new single Box With Spirits. The track continues the band's reputation for merging high-impact modern metal with the melodic instincts that each member has cultivated through decades with genre-defining acts including Amaranthe, The Halo Effect, Kamelot, The Crown and Suburban Tribe. Cyhra's latest work leans into atmospheric tension, cinematic synth textures and an unshakeable rhythmic drive, reaffirming their status as one of Scandinavia's standout contemporary metal collectives.

Alison Wonderland has launched her fourth studio album Ghost World, a 14 track release that captures her most expansive creative vision to date. The Australian producer, DJ, vocalist and songwriter continues to elevate the emotional and sonic scope of her work, delivering an album shaped by transition, resilience and a renewed sense of artistic clarity.