Lizz Wright

On 25 October 2026 Lizz Wright will perform at SPOT/De Oosterpoort in Groningen. The American singer, raised in the gospel choir of her father’s church in Georgia, builds her music at the intersection of jazz, soul, gospel and folk. From her debut Salt (2003) through Shadow (2024) she has traced a trajectory in which warm harmonies, restrained grooves and American roots songs meet.

On stage she moves effortlessly between original material and carefully chosen covers, from standards to spirituals with a Southern inflection, as heard on Grace (2017) and the live document Holding Space (2022).

Expect in Groningen a set focused on sound and storytelling: low, rounded vocals that occupy the space, compact arrangements with room for silence and pulse, and a band that lets the songs breathe without overloading them. Wright selects her material with care — Dreaming Wide Awake and The Orchard supplied intimate folk accents, Fellowship brought her closer to the spiritual source, Freedom & Surrender gave her songwriting a soulful edge — and those strands come together live in a coherent flow. Not theatrical exuberance, but a concentrated performance in which melody, lyrics and rhythm focus closely on one another.