THE O2
EMMA BOWNES TALKS TALENT
With The O2 arena expected to deliver a record show count of around 237 performances in 2025, we caught up with The O2 and AEG Europe’ s VP of venue programming Emma Bownes to discuss how it’ s winning such loyalty from major acts while also supporting grassroots artists and venues.
How do you and the team go that bit further to win the business from promoters and artist who are faced with an increasing number of options?
There’ s a lot of focus on making the artist feel welcome and appreciated. We pay a lot of attention to backstage venue dressing and make sure we celebrate key moments. For example, following four nights at the venue earlier this year, Kylie became the first female artist to join our exclusive 21 Club, which includes only three other solo music artists – Prince, Michael Buble and Drake. It was a huge accolade. We presented her with an engraved key to the venue, which she took on stage to show the audience. It was clearly a special and emotional moment for her.
It started many years ago with Prince’ s 21 shows. Residencies have become a key element of The O2’ s business, why are so many artists deciding to play runs of shows at The O2 rather than a stadium?
We’ ve been extremely fortunate to have hosted some incredible residencies over the years. From Peter Kay entering the fourth year of his monthly residency this year to 10 show residencies with Queen and Adam Lambert( 2022), Elton John( 2023) and Usher( 2025).
Just recently, we went on sale with a European exclusive run of 10 nights with Ariana Grande for Summer’ 26, which sold out in record time and we’ re so grateful that she chose The O2 for these shows.
I think there are several reasons why residencies at The O2 work well; obviously being situated in London helps. There’ s a massive catchment area of avid music fans, and it ' s easy to reach for fans travelling from the rest of the UK or Europe. We’ ve built an incredible legacy, and The O2 is an iconic venue where artists love to play.
To celebrate multi-night runs at the venue, we do everything we can to make the fans feel like they’ re part of something really special and exciting from the moment they arrive. Whether that’ s turning The O2 into The O3 for Drake with our naming rights partner VMO2, rolling out the purple carpet for Olivia Rodrigo fans last year or entertainment from Flipper’ s roller skaters preshow
Emma Bownes
for Usher – we want the artist and the fan to know how much we appreciate them coming to the venue, and give them a night that they’ ll always remember.
How has this year been in terms of the number of acts making their debut appearance at The O2?
This year, we have welcomed a record number of first-time headliners, with
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