Alongside the release of his brand new single ‘Cupid’s Bow’ and details of his much-anticipated new solo album Polari, British Singer-songwriter Olly Alexander has announced dates for his Up Close and Polari UK & Europe Tour, which includes a show in 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin on Tuesday 1st April 2025.
Tickets priced from €29.50 including booking fee & €1.50 restoration levy on sale now via Ticketmaster Ireland
Exploring themes of desire, intimacy, voyeurism and fate, ‘Cupid’s Bow’ is a compelling return from Olly Alexander. Its pounding club soundscape and nuanced love of the subculture was created alongside Polari collaborator Danny L Harle, with Olly as drawn to electronic pop’s earliest queer trailblazers as contemporary complexities; of love, and where to find it (whether a shot from Eros, or your local cruising spot).
Polari is a pop album for the ages, looking back on history as a means to learn more about yourself. Olly Alexander’s first album under his own name takes as its primary inspiration the (almost) lost art of Polari. Originating around Europe and the Romani community as early as the 1600s, this coded slang became in effect a secret language for homosexuals and the stigmatized during the twentieth century. It’s a concept Olly first came across when coming out and resonated more deeply with when playing Richie in ‘It’s A Sin’, where he grappled with questions about identity, self-expression and community. The kinds of which have always populated British life and have long been threaded through the history of pop music - you just had to know where to look.
After a decade releasing music as Years & Years, Polari is literally Olly Alexander talking the talk. He bonded with Danny L Harle over a mutual love of 80s club music, that period of uncompromising, avant-garde pop which nonetheless snuck into the mainstream. Polari remained a north star throughout the creative process, a language likewise lacking widespread recognition but still influential in plain sight (see such colloquialisms as “drag”, “naff” and “trade”).
The album arrives alongside audio-visual world-building in which Olly is in complete control, from its anarchic Derek Jarman-inspired aesthetic to Olly even writing a short play accompanying its release, full of cowboys, gods, and the occasional music industry exec. And after a long history of secrets and subtext, Polari is ultimately an open and universal pop record about those needs that transcend time, sexuality, and self: what it means to belong, to be loved, and (Polari literally translates as “to talk”) to connect.
About Olly Alexander
Entering a brand new solo era, Olly Alexander’s influence on pop culture shines bright. As Years & Years, Olly scored 2 #1 UK albums, 10 UK Top 40 singles and was awarded the BRIT Billion Award with 6.5 billion streams globally. He was nominated for Leading Actor at the 2022 BAFTA Television Awards for his role in the hit show ‘It’s A Sin’, which brought the fight against HIV/Aids back into public conversation and challenged perceptions of queer life for good. In 2024 Olly fulfilled a childhood fantasy of representing the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest, flying the flag as only he could in the first preview of Polari, ‘Dizzy’. He also returned to the stage this month with a role in the internationally-acclaimed experimental drama ‘White Rabbit Red Rabbit’, following a rotating cast that includes the likes of Michael Sheen, Minnie Driver and Daisy Edgar-Jones. Having headlined arenas and festivals worldwide - not to mention collaborating with Elton John, Kylie and Pet Shop Boys - it’s an icon-status that even saw him immortalised at Madame Tussauds London. Polari, the album, is set for release in February 2025.
