Icónica Fest, Seville 2025

Icónica Fest, Seville - 30th May to 14 July 2025

Contemporary music and dance festivals in Andalucia

This is the fifth edition of this music festival in Seville, which covers all genres from pop, rock, and electronica to jazz and funk. 

Its setting is the spectacular Plaza de España in Maria Luisa park in the Andalucian capital, with the artists performing on a stage in front of the illuminated building, at the central halfway point. The audience can choose from either standing or tiered seating (a few concerts are all seated). There is a light show before each concert, projected onto the façade of the building itself, and you can have a drink and a tapas at stalls set out along Avenida Isabel la Catolica, opposite the Plaza. The food available in "The Village" is the usual festival fare of fried fish, burgers, brioches and sandwiches; beer and a gin bar. Note that you can't take your own food or drinks into the concert area. The Village area stays open late after each concert, with DJs till 3am.

The 2025 edition sees the following international acts on stage: Justin Timberlake, Myke Towers, The Pet Shop Boys, Madness, Jean-Michel Jarre and Kylie Minogue plus a host of Andalucian and Spanish stars.

The following 23 night line has grown over the last few months. No new ascts have been announced since earlt March. However there may still be a few more anouncement to come as a full poster has not been published. In 2024 there were performances on 28 nights. There were 195,198 entrance tickets sold in 2024 which is an average attendance of almost 7.000 each night.

iconicafest.com

 

iconicafest.com

 

About Artists

by Tony Bryant

Justin Timberlake
Dubbed the ‘Prince of Pop’, American singer, songwriter, producer and actor Justin Timberlake rose to prominence as one of the lead vocalists with the millennial boy band NSYNC and has since become one of the most successful pop stars of the 21st century. His concert in Seville will be the first in Spain for 20 years and his only performance in the country during his current European tour.

Born in 1981 in Memphis, Tennessee, he began his career working on children’s musical television shows, and at the age of fourteen, he joined NSYNC, one of the best-selling boy bands of all time. In 2002, Timberlake, former boyfriend of Britney Spears, embarked on a solo career, securing chart-topping hits on both sides of the Atlantic. Today, he remains among the top-selling recording artistes in the history of modern music, with sales of more than 117 million records. His music has been described as having a ‘quality virtually unheard of in pop music since the ‘80s golden age of Michael Jackson, Madonna and Prince’. It has also been recognised with numerous accolades, including ten Grammy Awards, nine Billboard Awards and three Brit Awards, among many others.

Since 2010, Timberlake has balanced his musical career with numerous film performances alongside some of Hollywood’s most prestigious actors, making him one of the most sought-after celebrities both on stage and screen.

Rigoberta Bandini and Zahara
Barcelona singer and actress Paula Ribó González started her career at the age of seven, when she began working as a voice actress on children’s shows, and later progressed to working on big productions for Disney and Universal. She is best known on the music scene as Rigoberta Bandini, the lead singer of the musical project of the same name, whose music draws on many feminist influences.

As a solo performer, the 35-year-old singer offers a mixture of electronic pop, dubstep, reggaeton, and melodic ballads. Her open-minded, ironic, catchy, and fun approach to music, along with the social themes she addresses with her music, has garnered her an ever-growing following.

For her concert in Seville, she will be joined on stage by feminist singer/songwriter Zahara, a leading figure in indie music who began composing at the age of twelve.

Chayanne
Throughout his career, world-renowned Puerto Rican singer Chayanne has become one of the most influential Latin singers of his generation, achieving multiple prestigious awards such as a Billboard and Latin Grammy.

Born Elmer Figueroa Arce in Puerto Rico in 1968, Chayanne has recorded more than twenty albums and clocked up a string of worldwide hits, which have sold an estimated 40 million copies. He began his career in 1978 as a member of the group Los Chicos, who received success in much of Central and South America.

His solo career began in 1983, when he signed to the RCA Ariola record company, which released his debut solo album, ‘Chayanne is My Name’. This has been followed by a constant flow of Latin-pop recordings, and tours of the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Spain, the United States, Puerto Rico and Central America.

Myke Towers
Michael Torres from Puerto Rico, better known by his stage name Myke Towers, is one of the biggest and most current Latin artists in the world. He has collaborated with some of the most well-known names in Latin music, featuring on songs with global stars Bad Bunny and Becky G. His discography is a combination of reggaeton, Latin trap, and dancehall, and features salsa and hip-hop influences. He began rapping in his late teens and almost three decades later topped the Latin Album Charts with his hit record “Easy Money Baby” in 2020. by Alex Cutts

Emilia
Latin Grammy nominee Emilia is an Argentine singer who was part of the Uruguayan pop band Rombai, before turning solo in 2019. She gained recognition with her hit ‘No Soy Yo’, on which she collaborated with Puerto Rican rapper Darell. Her debut album, Tú Crees en Mi? went platinum in Argentina, which produced several top ten hits in the country and numerous accolades. Her latest offering, MP3 is a mixture of reggaeton, pop and Argentine and Peruvian cumbia.

Leiva
José Miguel Conejo Torres - Leiva, former member of the Spanish rock band Pereza, is a singer and multi-instrumentalist born in Madrid in 1980. After Pereza went their separate ways in 2011, Leiva embarked on his solo career, which has so far produced six studio albums and one live recording. Leiva stands out for his unmistakable style, which fuses rock, pop and poetry. His recordings and live performances have earned him critical acclaim in Spain and South America, and his status was further boosted in 2014, when The Rolling Stones asked him to open for their concert at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid. He has since established himself as an indispensable part of the Spanish rock scene, with a personal style that has made his music a genre benchmark.

Antoñito Molina.
Born in Rota, (Cádiz) in 1988, Antoñito Molina has captured the attention of an audience that appreciates roots music with a modern twist. With over 1.1 million monthly listeners on Spotify, he stands out for ability to connect with his audience, and for his fresh and authentic style, characterised by Andalusian pop, a genre that blends tradition music like copla and light flamenco. His poetic lyrics address profound themes that invite reflection. He has managed to remain relevant in the industry thanks to his ability to reinvent himself without losing his Andalusian roots.

Pet Shop Boys
The legendary trio Los Caños began as Pueblo Gitano, a children's chirigota who gained fame performing during the celebrated Cádiz carnival in the mid-1990s. Due to their live performances and numerous television appearances, they became popular with the younger generation and were besieged by hordes of fans, mainly female, wherever they appeared. They recorded several albums and achieved considerable chart success with their catchy-pop style songs until 2005, when they separated to pursue individual careers.In 2024, Los Caños announced they were to reform for a one-off concert at the Icónica festival in Seville in June 2025, although this developed into a farewell tour under the banner of ‘20 Years Thinking of You’, with the confirmation of dates in several cities in Spain.

Los Caños
Legendary British synth-pop duo the Pet Shop Boys burst onto the British charts in 1985 with West End Girls and have since been recognised as one of the most successful duos in British music history. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, who formed the duo in London in 1981, have clocked up over 40 UK Top 30 singles, half of which reached the Top 10 and four of which reached the number one spot.

With over four decades of experience, Pet Shop Boys are in the middle of their Dreamworld: The Greatest Hits Live' tour (2025), which has sold out in major cities across Europe and the UK, garnering a multitude of accolades with their shows, which have been described ‘an ecstatic celebration of brilliance’.

Known for their spectacular stage performances, Pet Shop Boys have created a unique fusion of pop music, and their visual style has been acclaimed at top international festivals including Glastonbury.Their show includes all the greatest hits, such as It’s a Sin, Always on My Mind, and What Have I Done to Deserve This, on which they collaborated with Dusty Springfield.

Mestiza
Mestiza is a DJ duo that has managed to reinvent electronic music, blending futuristic sounds with the deepest Andalusian roots. Formed by Pitty Bernad and Belah, from Albacete and Málaga respectively, two music producers who had been DJing separately for over a decade when they decided to join forces in 2021 and form this new concept in electronic music.

They have become increasingly popular on the Spanish house/club music scene and, in addition, they have their own festival, the Sacro festival, where they present a new electronic sound focused on a fusions of house music with African, Arabic and Latin rhythms.

Maná
Mexican pop-rock band Maná, formerly Sombreo Verde, were formed in 1981 and are considered the most successful Latin American band, with over 45 million records sold worldwide. Since achieving considerable success in Latin America and Spain, the group have gone on to boost their reputation by touring all over the world.

All of their studio albums have received world-wide praise, especially Donde Jugarán los Niños (1993), which became the best-selling Spanish-language rock album of all time.

Their lyrics raise awareness about environmental, social, and human rights issues, and the music is inspired by Latin pop, progressive rock, ska, reggae and calypso.

Love of Lesbian
One of the most iconic bands of Spanish alternative pop, Love of Lesbian began in Barcelona in 1997, and came to the attention of the music-buying public after coming second in a competition in the Ruta 66 magazine. In their early years the band sang in English, a language in which they recorded three albums. One of the highlights of this period was supporting The Cure on their Drean Tour in 2000.

Describing this period as a ‘learning the process’, the group began performing and recording in Spanish in 2005. Their 2009 recording (1999)) was considered a turning point in their career, winning the Rolling Stone magazine awards for Group of the Year and Tour of the Year. They promoted the album by touring Spain constantly for two years, before heading to the UK, and to Buenos Aires, their first venture into Latin America.

The band have continued to record, stringing up more than ten albums, while continuing to perform all over Europe and the USA. On their last recording in 2023, Love of Lesbian collaborated with numerous other established musicians, including Leiva and Rigoberta Bandini.

Cyprus Hill
Considered to be among the main protagonists of the West Coast hip hop scene of the 1990s, Cyprus Hill became the first hip hop band to have a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. The Californian group, whose lyrics are said to have reclaimed the Latino community's place in American music, perform a mixture of gangster rap, hardcore hip hop and psychedelic rap. The group, which advocates the use of marijuana, caused much controversy in 1993, after they smoked cannabis during a live performance on the Saturday Night Live televisions show.

Selling more than 20 million albums worldwide, the group has performed with other celebrated rappers, like The Beasty Boys, along with other established musicians and bands such as Ziggy Marley and the Fugees: they have also been featured in an episode of The Simpsons.

As well as being named Best Rap Group by Rolling Stone magazine in 1992, Cyprus Hill have also received several platinum awards and other nominations for their albums due to their stylistic impact on rap music.

Madness
Considered one of the most prominent bands of the two-tone ska revival movement that exploded onto the UK music scene in the 1970s and ‘80s, Madness clocked up a total of 16 singles that reached the UK top ten, including House of Fun, which stayed at the top of the charts for nine weeks.

The band began two attract a huge following on the London music scene of the late 1970s, especially in venues like the Dublin Castle in Camden Town, the launching pad for the careers of numerous bands during this era. The group’ most successful period was during the first half of the 1980s, releasing iconic tunes such as My Girl, Baggy Trousers, It Must be Love and Nigh Boat to Cairo.

After several commercially unsuccessful releases, Madness decided to split in 1986, although the release of a compilation of their greatest hits saw the band reform in 1992. They have since continued to perform at festivals and large-scale events, like in 2012 when they performed at the Queens Diamond Jubilee concert on the roof of Buckingham Palace, and at the closing ceremony of the London Olympic games the same year.

Today, the band continue to perform with six of the seven members of their original line-up, and their show is as equally energetic and visual as is was back in the ‘80s.

Jean-Michell Jarre
Born in Lyon in 1948, Jean-Michell Jarre is considered a pioneer for spearheading the electronic age of synthesised pop music performed at large-scale events accompanied by spectacular laser and light shows. His concerts are performed to audiences of up to one million people in iconic locations like the Acropolis in Athens, the Palace of Versailles, the Pyramids of Egypt, Tiananmen Square in Beijing, and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. His largest event was performing to approximately 3.5 million people in Moscow 1997.

He first received mainstream success with the 1976 album Oxygéne, which sold around 18 million copies, even though it was recorded in a makeshift studio in the musician’s house. The recording has been described as the album that ‘led the synthesizer revolution of the 1970s’. This was followed two years later with Équinoxe, an album which, as of 2016, had sold an estimated 18 million copies and is one of the best-selling French, electronic and instrumental albums in history.

Gilberto Santa Rosa
Nicknamed El Caballero de la Salsa (the gentleman of salsa) Gilberto Santa Rosa has enjoyed a career that has spanned four decades and hits that have shaped generations. Born in Puerto Rico in 1962, the bandleader and singer has sold more than three million records and has picked up six Grammy Awards.

His career began in the early 1980s when he started to attract attention for his unique style of improvisation with the salsa, both tropical and romantic, which resulted in a recording contract with Combo Records in 1986. This was to launch him on the road to stardom and a stack of hit records, and he became the first singer of tropical salsa to perform at Carnegie Hall.

Along with his own band, Rosa has collaborated on several ‘all-star’ musical projects with celebrated musicians from both Puerto Rico and the USA.

Kylie Minogue
Pop superstar, actress, and 90s icon Kylie Minogue should need no introduction to serious pop music lovers, seeing as she has achieved worldwide recognition, becoming the highest-selling Australian female artist of all time. She was listed among the most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2024. During her career, Minogue had amassed numerous hit singles in Australia and the UK, with sales surpassing 80 million records. These include dance-pop hits like The Loco-Motion, Can’t Get You Out of My Head and Better the Devil You Know, among many others.

Sometimes referred to as ‘the princess of pop’, Minogue became a serious contender for Madonna’s crown in mainstream dance-oriented music, reinventing her image and experimenting with numerous musical styles. She has come a long way since playing Charlene in the Australian television soap, Neighbours during the 1980s, performing her music to sellout audiences all over the globe and continuing to produce top-selling albums in styles as diverse as country, new wave, disco and electro-pop.

In 2023, Minogue released her sixteenth album, Tension, which spawned the single Padam Padma, entering the UK charts and secured her the honour of being the only female artist to achieve a UK top ten entry each decade from the 1980s to the 2020s. In 2025, she launched her biggest tour since 2011, the Tension Tour, which will take in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Kaleo
Founded in 2012, Kaleo is an Icelandic folk, blues and indie rock band that rose to fame with their hit single Way Down We Go, which was certified double platinum in the United States, reaching the top of the Billboard Alternative chart in 2016. The band signed with Atlantic Records in 2015 and relocated to Austin, Texas, and soon began to receive critical acclaim in the USA.

The group has toured extensively to promote a string of albums and the singles these produced, having much commercial success in countries such as the UK, Belgium, Germany, South Africa and Russia.

The band was influenced by Delta Blues, although vocalist and guitarist JJ Jökull Júlíusson cites his influences as Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Carlos Santana: the music press has compared the group to Led Zeplin, Cream and ZZ Top. 

Miguel Bosé
Pop singer and actor Miguel Bosé was born in Panama in 1956 and began his movie career in 1971, which was instigated by his famous family and the circle within which they mixed. The son of Italian actress Lucia Bosé and Spanish bullfighter extraordinaire Luis Miguel Dominguín, Bosé was raised between Madrid and Colombia and was surround by celebrated family friends like Pablo Picasso, Luchino Visconti and Ernest Hemmingway, so it was almost a foregone conclusion that he would choose the path of the arts.

His music career took off in 1975 with the release of his first single, and two years later he signed to CBS Records.

He had seven top ten hits between 1977 and 1982, which turned him into a major teen idol in Italy, Spain, Southern Europe and in most of Latin America. He has since recorded more than 25 albums and countless singles of commercial pop and light rock music.

In 2008 he announced he would take a break form music to concentrate on literature projects and his acting, although by 2010 he was back in the recording studio. He has continued to balance both his acting and music careers, making him one of Spain’s most productive performers.

Black Coffee
South African DJ and Producer Black Coffee is a Grammy Award winning artist. He first made his debut in 90's after finishing his school education at the Red Bull Music Academy in Cape Town, and in 2015, he played for numerous prestigious Ibiza clubs, such as Cocoon and Hï.

He primarily combines African music, with the popular house and jazz music, to bring local traditions to an international audience. Black Coffee's ability to DJ with only one arm, after losing his left arm in a car accident when he was 14, adds to his already impressive artistry. 

His impressive skills are evident in the multiple awards he has won, and renowned artists such as David Guetta, Drake, and Alicia Keys he has collaborated with. By Scarlett Aernouts.

About the 2024 Icónica Fest
About the 2023 Icónica Fest
Read our report Bizarrap takes Seville by storm at 2023 Icónica Fest

Festivals in Seville

Music and dance festivals in Andalucia