SZA and Noah Kahan Join Green Day As Headliners for Osheaga 2024
"Whenever we see an artist that plays early and then eventually ends up headlining, that's kind of always been our goal," says festival co-founder Nick Farkas.
SZA
Osheaga has announced all three headliners for the festival’s 2024 edition, adding SZA and Noah Kahan alongside the already-announced Green Day. The major Montreal music festival will return to Parc Jean-Drapeau from Aug. 2-4 next summer.
SZA and Kahan have both had big years on the charts, and festival promoters are clearly paying attention. SZA’s sophomore album, SOS, built on the success of her debut CTRL to spend ten weeks atop the Billboard 200, cementing her as one of the industry’s biggest stars. She topped the Hot 100 with the sleek and sinister “Kill Bill,” as well as her feature on Drake’s “Slime You Out,” and won the Billboard Woman of the Year award earlier this year. Heading into the new year, she has nine nominations for the 2024 Grammys — the most of any artist.
SZA hasn't played Osheaga since before the release of CTRL in 2015. Back then, her performance slot would have been early on in the day, as opposed to closing out the night.
"The model for our festival has always been about strength of lineup from the beginning to the end," says Osheaga co-founder Nick Farkas, who is excited to have SZA back next year. "Whenever we see an artist that plays early and then eventually ends up headlining, that's kind of always been our goal, to elevate artists and really develop younger talent."
Kahan, meanwhile, broke through into the mainstream this year with his second record, Stick Season, which reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200. Kahan has collaborated with a slew of top tier artists, including Kacey Musgraves, Hozier and Post Malone. The Osheaga headlining shows he's a top-tier artist in his own right, alongside his recent Grammy nod for Best New Artist. The Osheaga date comes after Kahan’s 2024 arena tour, with stops in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, London, Ottawa and Quebec City, as well as three dates at Toronto's Scotiabank Arena and a sold-out show at Montreal's Bell Centre.
"I've rarely seen an artist go from — not zero to a hundred — I'd say it's like fifty to a hundred in no seconds," Farkas says of Kahan's breakout year. "There's not a lot of acts period that can sell three arenas in Toronto."
Both artists join rock legends Green Day on the festival’s top billing, who will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of their massive album American Idiot — their first No.1 on the Billboard 200 — and the 30th anniversary of ‘90s classic Dookie. The band recently played a fiery halftime show for Canada’s Grey Cup and frontman Billie Joe Armstrong has announced that he’s part Canadian now, so they’re sure to fit right in at the Montreal festival. They release their newest album Saviors in January, while lead single “The American Dream Is Killing Me” sits on top of the Rock & Alternative Airplay charts.
It's Green Day's first time playing the festival.
"I can't remember how many times we've offered on them over the years," Farkas says, "it finally worked out."
The festival, which brings roughly 150 thousand people to Jean-Drapeau every year, is one of Canada’s biggest annual music events, programming a mix of international stars and homegrown talent. Previous headliners include Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar,
