It’s the $478 question: who are the headline acts for 2024’s official Mardi Gras dance party at the Horden Pavilion and Bondi Beach party?
With tickets for each event costing $239 ($478 in total for both) and no confirmation yet as to who the headliners will be, Gay Sydney News has been on a quest for answers.
In this story, you’ll learn what we’ve been told by multiple Sydney music and entertainment industry sources, as well as from those claiming to have knowledge of who is booked.
The most interesting thing we’ve learned so far is that Lady Gaga and The Spice Girls were approached to perform during the 2023 Sydney Mardi Gras and WorldPride season.
Gaga is no surprise when you look at who Mardi Gras and WorldPride hired as their talent booker for 2023: Chloe Melick, the original founder of UK music publicity agency Inside/Out, whose clients have included Gaga, Kelis and Janet Jackson just to name a few. Melick is listed in the Mardi Gras 2024 festival guide as its “headline talent booker”.
A source with direct knowledge of negotiations for 2023 tells us discussions were “progressing well” with Gaga’s agent until she was cast in the DC sequel “Joker”, the filming of which had a direct scheduling conflict with Sydney WorldPride.
The same source, who also told us that The Spice Girls were approached for 2023, said that the girl group were “close” to being locked in (minus Victoria Beckham) but pulled out late in discussions.
So could Gaga and The Spice Girls be secured this time – either for the Mardi Gras after-party or the Bondi Beach Party? No one we spoke to had heard word that they had been.
However, during her recent DJ set at Sydney’s Heaps Gay harbour party, the Spice Girl known as Mel C said: “I hope to see you very soon and … maybe I’ll bring my friends with me.”
A performer we have been told has been in discussions with Mardi Gras for 2024’s Bondi party is US singer and songwriter Slayyyter (“Mine”).
Our source on Slayyyter performing at the Bondi Beach party is a trusted GSN contact that we have been in touch with for some time now.
Asked to comment, Slayyyter’s label Virgin Music asked GSN if they could come back to us with further information before we ran this story.
Advised of our deadline of 6pm AEDT today, they told us to contact the Sydney Mardi Gras organisation for more details. You’ll find Mardi Gras’ response later in this article.
A separate source, whom GSN has not spoken to before but who claims to have knowledge of booked artists via an industry contact of theirs, claimed that Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado (“I’m Like a Bird”) has been booked for the 2024 Bondi Beach party and Swedish singer and songwriter Loreen (“Euphoria”) for the after-party.
“Mardi Gras don’t comment on speculation or rumours surrounding our line-up,” Mardi Gras told us when approached regarding Fertado, Loreen and Slayyyter.
What makes us believe Loreen is a potential candidate for 2024 is that another separate entertainment industry source, whom we have known for some time, told us that they too had heard Loreeen would be in town for Mardi Gras in 2024. Further, Mardi Gras has form when it comes to Eurovision Song Contest performers; Loreen has won the contest twice – in 2012 and this year.
Asked to comment, Loreen’s agent at Wasserman Music told Gay Sydney News that it was news to him that she had been booked.
However, he said someone from Mardi Gras may have been in touch with Loreen’s management (separate from her agent) and directed us to them. Loreen’s management has yet to respond to our request for comment.
Furtado’s management and agent have also yet to return our emails.
As part of this story, we only reached out to the agents and managers of the performers who seemed more likely for the 2024 Sydney Mardi Gras (Slayyyter, Furtado and Loreen).
Artists confirmed to be in town during 2024’s Mardi Gras include 90s US R&B duo TLC (“Waterfalls”) and Taylor Swift (“…Ready For It?”). But Swift is performing at a stadium on the night of the Bondi Beach party and will be in Singapore on the night of the after-party. Meanwhile, TLC has a gig in Melbourne on the night of the after-party but isn’t booked on the night of the Bondi party. P!NK will also be in town, but in Melbourne and WA on the nights of both parties.
Gay Sydney News editor