Ida Maria tour dates

Ida Maria is a 23 year old Norwegian singer-songwriter-guitarist who combines the songwriting suss of early Strokes and the fearlessness of Iggy Pop with a voice that has been compared to Janis Joplin yet also echoes the other-worldly strangeness of Björk.

Following on from two limited edition singles on her own label Nesna Records, 'Oh My God' and 'Drive Away My Heart', and the single 'Stella' on Waterfall/RCA, Ida Maria releases her new single 'Queen Of The World' on 12th May.

Opening with 'whisky please, I need some whisky please' the song is about drinking and feeling like you're the best at everything and essentially the 'Queen Of The World' when you're drunk. A definite favourite live, where Ida jumps about shaking her hands in the air, in effect portraying the theme of the song.

Now living in Stockholm, Sweden, Ida (pronounced Eee-da) Maria grew up in Nesna, a tiny university town in the north of Norway with a population of 1,776, one gas station, one pub, one closed-down shoe factory and lots of mountains. It's near the Arctic Circle, which means that it's in perpetual darkness for half of the year.

An utterly absorbing, totally unselfconscious front woman ("A fizzing yelping ball of Nordic excitement", Dazed & Confused) Ida Maria gives everything when she plays live, where she is joined by her band - Stefan Törnby on lead guitar, Johannes Lindberg on bass, and Olle Lundin on drums. Having already performed an exhilarating set on 'Later…With Jools Holland' and recently filling out dirty dives from Camden to Shoreditch, make sure you catch her live on her next tour.

The debut album from Ida Maria will be released in the summer:

09 May - Brick Yard, Carlisle
10 May - Metropolis @ The Empire, Middlesbrough
11 May - The Tunnels, Aberdeen
15 May - The Great Escape Festival, Brighton
16 May - The Great Escape Festival, Brighton
19 May - The Cockpit, Leeds
20 May - Jericho Tavern, Oxford
21 May - Kings College, London
24 May - Dot-To-Dot Festival, Bristol
25 May - Dot-To-Dot Festival, Nottingham
27 May - Glee Club, Birmingham
29 May - Fuzz Club @ The Foundry, Sheffield
31 May - Academy 3, Manchester
01 Jun - King Tuts, Glasgow