Bonnaroo 2024 Artist Spotlight: Bakar

Like we’ve been doing for many years now, we’re making it our mission to help you get acquainted with many of our favorite acts from Bonnaroo‘s 2024 lineup. After roaring back to life in 2022, after two years off due to Covid and weather, and feeling fully like its old self again with a great fest last summer, this year marks Bonnaroo’s 21st installment (and 23rd anniversary), boasting not only another great and varied lineup, but also a continuation of some of the big changes and improvements rolled out over the last couple of years, with more flexibility in ticketing and camping, a reimagined “Outeroo” campground area, new activations, and further new ways to Roo. Back once again in its usual June 13-16 timeframe, we’re counting down the days until another great weekend on the farm.

As we dig through the entire schedule, we’ll highlight a spread of performers spanning across genres and stages, big and small, new and old, to bring you some of the most interesting, lesser-known, and most highly-recommended among this year’s crop of artists. And as our time at ‘Roo approaches, we’ll also be bringing you some special features and full list-style daily lineup guides, to help you plan your weekend ahead of the fest. While these previews won’t span every artist, and might omit some more obvious must-see acts, we hope they’ll serve as a way to help you navigate Bonnaroo’s gargantuan lineup, and to make the most of your busy weekend at the fest!

Grab your tickets right here if you haven’t already, and read on for our Bonnaroo Artist Spotlight!

LEARN

Born Abubakar Baker Shariff-Farr, the son of a Tanzanian mother and Yemeni father, in London, the artist better known as Bakar first found a love of music as a kid through hip hop (underground American rap and London’s grime scene in particular) and r&b, but discovered indie rock as a teen while attending boarding school, broadening his musical horizons and expanding his artistic ambitions as he began to craft his own songs, initially released to SoundCloud. After a few years of refining his craft, Bakar got more serious in his early 20s, formally dropping his debut single “Big Dreams” in 2017, followed by a string of other strong, genre-bending tracks ahead of his debut full-length mixtape, Badkid, in 2018. Ostensibly indie rock (his voice has aptly been compared to Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke), Bakar’s style is chameleonic, drawing from hip hop, punk and post-punk, and r&b, shifting in style from song to song and even within individual tracks, and bridging the gap between expected genre conventions. Earning some early buzz, festival appearances, and nods from big names like Elton John and Skepta, Bakar signed a management team and inked a deal with Black Butter Records at the start of 2019, releasing ubiquitous hit “Hell N Back”- his best-known and most popular song to date- that same year, ahead of EP Will You Be My Yellow?, which featured a guest spot from Dominic Fike. Around that time, the multifaceted talent also broke into fashion, modeling for Prada and walking the runway for Louis Vuitton, a natural extension of the modeling work he had done growing up. Though the pandemic slowed things down a bit, Bakar continued to release singles and collaborations throughout 2020 and 2021, dropping his proper debut LP, Nobody’s Home, in 2022, further pushing his personal, sensitive, and contemplative musical stylings and exploring a melting pot of influences with hits like “The Mission,” “Build Me a Way,” and “NW3.” Sophomore effort Halo arrived just over a year laster, dropping last fall to critical acclaim, and notching viral tunes like “Alive!,” “Right Here, for Now,” and a new version of “Hell N Back” featuring Summer Walker. One of the UK’s most exciting and unique new musical fixtures, Bonnaroo marks Bakar’s first-ever performance in the Nashville area, making this set all the more essential at the fest!

WATCH | “Alive!” (Official Video)