Japanese pop artist yama is finally heading to Australia, with their first shows here locked in for Melbourne and Sydney this October. The two-date debut pairs yama with local emerging talent, with Eli Wan joining the Melbourne show and YURA opening in Sydney.

yama has carved out a distinctive corner of contemporary J-pop, combining emotionally charged vocals with adventurous production and a cinematic streak. Their reach has increasingly stretched beyond Japan, helped by music appearing across anime including Ranking of Kings, SPY×FAMILY, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, SANDA and 2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team.

The Australian debut begins at Melbourne’s Northcote Theatre on Friday, October 16, where alt-pop artist and producer Eli Wan joins the bill. His music throws glitch-pop, 2010s hooks and digital overload into the blender, finding something strangely euphoric amid the endless tabs, unread messages and online noise of modern life.

Sydney follows at Liberty Hall on Saturday, October 17 with Korean-Australian singer-songwriter YURA opening the night. Moving between contemporary R&B, indie pop and lo-fi, YURA has grown from teenage GarageBand experiments into an artist with more than two million Spotify streams on Pearl and support slots with Coogie and Grent Perez behind her.

For Australian fans who have discovered yama through J-pop, anime or somewhere in between, October marks the first chance to see that world move from headphones and screens into the room. With YURA and Eli Wan bringing two very different strains of Australian pop into the equation, yama’s long-awaited debut should make for two intriguing nights on the left-field edge of pop.

Go HERE for tickets.

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