One of the city's great hidden treasures, the Brussels music scene hosts some of the biggest and best up-and-coming artists and bands in the international, European and Belgian scene.
Every month, Europe's capital has no shortage of thrilling concerts – and picking out the best gigs can be tough. This is why we have put together a monthly guide to discover the best live acts in the city, perfect for new and old Brussels folk alike.
Carefully selected by music journalist Simon Taylor, here are The Brussels Times' choices for the concerts that you should not miss with your friends this July. With the gig circuit slowing down this month, we take a look at acts playing this month's Brosella and LaSemo festivals.
Best gigs this month
4 July
Elina Duni and Rob Luft
Brosella festival, Osseghem Park
Set time: 16:30-17:15
Brosella, held in the open-air theatre in the shadow of the Atomium, is one of Brussels’ musical gems. Over two days, it features jazz, world and folk artists. It used to be free until the Belgian tax authorities, spooked by the idea of a cultural event happening off their radar screen, insisted on charging them. This year you can choose how much you pay from a range of three prices. The quality of the line up tends to vary from year to year, possibly because they operate on a small budget. But this year the festival has one of the best line ups I can remember. One of the highlights is Elina Duni, an Albanian jazz and folk singer who moved to Switzerland at the age of ten.
Elina Duni with Rob Luft
Duni uses her enchanting voice to sing songs in an impressive range of languages from her native Albanian to Italian, French and English. She has been making music and performing with superb English guitarist Rob Luft since 2017, when they met at Montreux’s legendary jazz festival. Their music is reminiscent of the great guitar and vocal duos like Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass, and bossa nova luminaries Astrud Gilberto and Antônio Jobim. Together, they combine atmospheric jazz with ethereal tunes drawn from world music. While both singer and guitarist have their jazz skills down, their musicianship never overwhelms the melodic beauty of their music. Truly, a treat on a warm summer’s day.
Derya Yıldırim and Grup Şimșek
Brosella festival, Osseghem Park
Set time: 18:00-18:45
Yıldırim is a German musician of Turkish origin who plays an electric bağlama (or saz), the Turkish lute. Her music is inspired by the wave of Turkish music that emerged in the late 60s and early 70s when artists such as Erkin Koray melded traditional tunes with influences from the psychedelic bands they were listening to from the UK and the US.
Derya Yıldırim and Grup Şimșek
Her music is in the same vein as Dutch-Turkish band Altin Gün, with highly infectious dance rhythms and a sonically rich sound from her three accompanying musicians. I saw her and her band perform at the Feeërieën festival in the Parc Royal in 2019. She and her group released their third album, Yarın Yoksa, last year. Recently, she has ventured into playing her instrument with an orchestra backing.
Folk Bitch Trio
Brosella festival, Osseghem Park
Set time: 19:30-20:15
The provocatively named Folk Bitch Trio hail from Australia and perform delicate songs in close harmony. While the obvious reference points are The Staves, originally a trio of three sisters, now down to two after some babies, Folk Bitch will also appeal to fans of Laura Marling and Patron Saint of the Sad Girls, Phoebe Bridgers, with their use of atmospheric backing tracks to their songs.
Folk Bitch Trio
Unlike the Staves, this trio (Grace Sinclair, Jeanie Pilkington, and Heide Peverelle) do not seem to be sisters, giving the lie to the cliché that siblings are the best close-harmony singers. They play after Deriya Yıldırım, who should get the crown moving – but Folk Bitch will be a great musical palette cleaner before the later acts on the bill.
Cheikh Lô
Brosella festival, Osseghem Park
Set time 22:45-23:45
Lô is a Senegalese musician who has been performing since his early twenties back in 1976. He became part of the blooming west African music scene when in the late 1980s when mbalax, a mixture of polyrhythmic drumming with influences of salsa and cumbia, soul, funk and RnB, was increasingly popular. In 1985 he worked in Paris with African musicians and played drums with luminaries such as Congolese artist Papa Wembe, known as the King of Rumba.
Cheikh Lô
While in Paris, Lô heard new types of music, including reggae, which he incorporated into his sound and which marks out his music from other African artists to this day. He achieved international success and recognition in 1995 with his debut album, Ne La Thiass, which was produced by Senegal’s best-known artist, Youssou N’Dour, the king of mbalax.
5 July
BXL vs LDN Interplay
Brosella festival, Osseghem Park
Set time: 14:30-15:15
On Sunday, Brosella’s programme switches to jazz. BXL vs LDN Interplay features up-and-coming players from the two cities’ strong jazz scenes and the ensemble is led by Alice Sinephro, the sister of harpist and electronic musician Nala.
Amaro Freitas
Brosella festival, Osseghem Park
Set time: 17:30-18:15
Freitas is a pianist from Recife in north-eastern Brazil, and his music combines jazz with the rich heritage of his home country. He was recognised as a prodigy early in his career and was highly sought after by other musicians to play with them. That early start and exposure have helped him to quickly develop a very distinct musical creativity and identity that makes him stand out in what can sometimes be a crowded field.
Amaro Freitas
His most recent album, Y Y, which came out in 2024, is a musical exploration of the Amazon rainforest. As a sure sign of this young man’s talent and recognition by his peers, the album features Jeff Parker, probably the most exciting jazz guitarist around today; Shaba Hutchings, the British flautist who has carved out his own seam of spiritual jazz; and Brandee Younger, the US jazz harpist.
Adrian Younge
Brosella festival, Osseghem Park
Set time: 22:30-23:30
Composer and arranger Younge and his Jazz Is Dead label have played a special role in recent years in providing a showcase for some of the best talents of previous generations of jazz and world musicians and exposing them to a new audience with a younger one. He founded the label with Ali Shaheed Muhammed from the legendary hip-hop outfit A Tribe Called Quest in 2020 and has released 26 recordings to date.
Adrian Younge
The first featured vibes player Roy Ayers, famous for Everybody Needs the Sunshine, as well as Brian Jackson, the flautist who worked with spoken word poet and singer Gil Scott-Heron on so many of his classic records from the late 70s and 80s. Later editions include Brazilian jazz legends Azymuth and singer Joyce Moreno. For his show at Brosella, Younge and his five-piece band will be joined by singer Loren Oden.
11 July
Nubiyan Twist
LaSemo festival, Parc d’Enghien
From Brosella, we move to the LaSemo festival in the small town of Enghien on the Flemish-Walloon border, south-west of Halle. Nubiyan Twist are a nine-piece band that plays an infectious and supremely danceable mix of jazz, soul, RnB, funk and reggae. The members of the band met at the Leeds College of Music in 2011, and their summer-friendly sound has become a regular feature of festivals in the UK, including Glastonbury, Green Man, WOMAD and A Love Supreme.
Nubiyan Twist
Their most recent album, Chasing Shadows, from 2024, featured an impressive roster of some of the stars of contemporary African music and the UK jazz scene, including Mali’s Fatoumata Diawara, British keyboard player and composer Joe Armon-Jones and even US jazz-funk legend Patrice Rushen of Forget Me Nots fame (the track that Will Smith sampled for the theme song to Men in Black).
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