Keo headlined and Bella Kay made her U.K. live debut at Billboard U.K.’s Great Escape 2026 showcase in Brighton. Full recap inside
Brighton’s Deep End venue, perched on the breezy seafront of Madeira Drive, became one of the most charged spots at The Great Escape 2026 on May 15 as Billboard U.K. delivered its second annual stage takeover at the festival. Headlined by London four-piece Keo and bolstered by the presence of chart-ascending 20-year-old Bella Kay making her first U.K. live appearances, the showcase served as a real-time dispatch on where British and Irish alternative music is headed next.
This year’s Great Escape, running May 13-16 across more than 35 walkable venues in Brighton, marks its 20th anniversary edition. Industry delegates and local music fans shared space across the city’s independent rooms, with the Billboard U.K. beach stage functioning as both a tastemaker tent and a proving ground for artists on the steepest upward trajectories in the U.K. and beyond.
Keo Close Out the Night With a Set Built for Bigger Rooms
London group Keo closed the Billboard U.K. bill with the kind of performance that makes festival programmers reach for their phones. The band, fronted by 21-year-old Finn Keogh, has built its reputation entirely on the strength of live shows that teeter between catharsis and collapse. Thursday night at the Deep End was no different.
Songs including “Hands,” “That’s Me,” and “I Lied, Amber” drew fervent reactions from a crowd that skewed young, loud, and deeply familiar with every word. The intensity felt earned. Despite a limited studio catalogue anchored by their debut five-track Siren EP, released via AWAL, Keo have accumulated a fanbase that punches well above the band’s catalogue size.
The headlining slot follows a strong run of momentum for the group. Keo have since secured a major label deal with Island Records, sold out a spring U.K. and Ireland headline tour, appeared at Reading and Leeds, played ESNS, and opened for Kings of Leon at BST Hyde Park. Billboard U.K. editor Thomas Smith confirmed the band’s slot in February, describing Keo as “one of the most exciting, and loudest, prospects in the U.K.” On the evidence of their Deep End set, that assessment held up without argument.
Bella Kay Brings Her Transatlantic Moment to the British Shoreline
The most commercially significant name on the day’s bill arrived in the form of Bella Kay, a California-based, Texas-born 20-year-old whose acoustic breakout “iloveitiloveitiloveit” has spent the last several months establishing itself as one of the defining viral singles of 2026. Released on January 11 via Atlantic Records, the guitar-driven track was first shared as a TikTok voice note in November 2025, written in five minutes and co-produced with Alexis Kesselman.
The response was immediate and global. The song reached No. 1 in Ireland and Norway, peaked at No. 2 on the U.K.’s Official Singles Chart, and climbed to a No. 17 high on the Billboard Hot 100 in its seventh week on the chart. By April 11, it had logged more than 256,000 TikTok videos and counted placement on Spotify’s Daily Viral Charts in 14 countries.
The Great Escape dates marked Kay’s first live performances on British soil following that wave of chart success, a detail that gave her brief set an occasion-specific weight that went beyond a typical festival slot. The Siren EP’s billing on the Billboard U.K. stage placed her directly in the company of the sharpest emerging indie and alternative acts from across the British Isles, a positioning that underscored just how cross-Atlantic the appetite for her music has become.
The bill was rounded out by fellow Irish act Bleech 9:3, who previously toured alongside Keo and have spent 2026 building a following through a string of singles including the fan-favourite “Ceiling.” Adult DVD, who made significant noise at U.K. summer festivals last year, and first-time Great Escape performers Slag and Dolder completed a lineup that captured a credible cross-section of the alternative underground.
The Great Escape has historically served as an early platform for artists who go on to define their generation. Stormzy, Dua Lipa, Sam Fender, Adele, and Fontaines D.C. all played the festival in their formative stages. The 2026 Billboard U.K. stage, in its second year at the Deep End, continued that tradition, offering a curated argument for a cohort of artists that is building quietly, and very quickly.
