From June 5 to 7, the Île-de-France festival pushed Gorillaz, Theodora, Dijon, Addison Rae, Oklou, and The XX into the spotlight. Between anticipated reunions, the rise of pop stars, and euphoric performances, the 2026 edition of We Love Green fulfilled its many promises. Here are the highlights.
Gorillaz, the Unmissable Concert
Among the avalanche of names on the bill for this new edition of We Love Green, the group led by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett stood at the very top of the concerts not to be missed. For their first French date since 2022, Gorillaz delivered a set saturated with hedonism. Despite Albarn’s rusty French (which would culminate in the ecstatic Désolé shared with Fatoumata Diawara), he unfolded three decades of adventurous, boundary-defying pop with a sincerity that was almost disarming. Accompanied by a battalion of backing vocalists and musicians— notably Indian artists to bolster the standout tracks from his latest album, The Mountain—and joined on stage by Omar Souleyman, Kara Jackson, or Posdnuos (De La Soul), Albarn and his paramilitary troupe proved themselves as a leading force in defending live music.
Oklou and Jeune Morty, the Dilemma
In the spectrum of festival-spawned rivalries that play out at a distance, the clash between the Poitiers-raised pop star and the new Franco-Ivorian rap hero topped our list of insoluble dilemmas. Oklou, with an increasingly impressive command (enhanced by immersive staging tailored to the festival format), pushed delight to heights rarely reached. It was with a small sting that we left the enveloping atmosphere of her ambient-medieval soundscapes for Jeune Morty’s show on the neighboring stage. A feeling quickly swept away by the electrifying performance of the moment’s coolest rapper. Morty, backed by logobi dancers and driven by a supremely elastic flow, hopped from one subgenre to another, rallied the crowd, opened an EDM crack with Swedish producer Varg²™, revived the coupé-décalé on the hit Ivoire Feeling, and paid homage to Douk Saga and Avicii (both lost too soon). Oklou versus Jeune Morty, the star‑wars of the night.
Mac DeMarco, the Reliable Bet
While past shows that ended in kangaroo‑style outfits or lightning covers of Coldplay and Vanessa Carlton now feel like distant memories, a calmer, emotionally intensified Mac DeMarco took the We Love Green main stage. Less bombastic, the Canadian’s performance offered festival-goers a window into the longevity of his catalog, which includes several modern rock classics. Serene but playfully mischievous, a Vernor Winfield McBriare Smith IV concert now evokes a definite feeling. As one festival-goer captured on the big screens and moved to tears by the anthem to his beloved cigarettes in Ode To Viceroy, the moment lingered long after the song faded.
Addison Rae, the Surprise
Contrary to a colleague who’d been convinced from the start, we hadn’t quite understood what Addison Rae’s music was about. Delivering a show that summoned Madonna, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Broadway, hyperpop, French‑speaking culture, and Americana (among countless other references), the main artist laid bare all the clues needed to decipher her sound for those who weren’t following yet. Not without flaws, the American pop star delivered a liberating performance (the heart‑rending scream in her Charli XCX remix is a perfect example) and, paradoxically, a surprisingly moving one. A creator of pop manufactured to the edge of perfection (sometimes successful), to hear and watch Addison Rae labor, body and soul, to deploy a total pop spectacle that seems to be spontaneously born before our eyes, produces a profoundly affecting effect. A steel‑plated pop optimism, fierce and evident.
Theodora, the Best Show
Scheduled last year on a stage already too small for the pop tsunami she represented, it only took another year for the Franco‑Congolese pop star to seize the most prestigious slot at We Love Green (renamed We Love Boss Lady by the artist herself): the headlining slot on La Prairie’s main stage. A position she earns outright, for Theodora appears genuinely cut out for the challenge. Built around a few features but above all around her sole album to date, Theodora’s show is an unstoppable steamroller. A force so impressive that, faced with a flood of hits more stunning than the last, one even forgets the existence of Kongolese Sous BBL, which had propelled her to the forefront two years earlier. A sign (among others) that here lies the country’s greatest popstar.
Dijon, the Crowning Moment
Under the Clairière’s canopy, converts and the curious gathered to hear Dijon Duenas. The craftsman behind two albums as ambitious as they were unapologetically bold, everyone wondered how the Bieber-producer and Mk.gee’s partner would manage his soulful, bruised productions on stage. Delving into the emotional core of his latest album (Baby, 2025), he delivered a performance that communicated both his disarming sincerity and his skeletal, raw mechanics. Behind a minimalist set that replays the idea of a full studio session, the beauty of this soulful patchwork was amplified, turning the show into a masterclass in vulnerable, precise songwriting.
Ninajirachi and Six Sex, the Most Fun Concerts
As is increasingly the case, the Think Tank stage at We Love Green delivered several standout and emancipatory performances outside the main stages. This year, it was Argentine duo Six Sex and Australian Ninajirachi who shared the top spot on a ranking measured by applause, brainwaves, and seismic activity. Two euphoric, on‑stage visions that championed tonal rupture and genre‑blending as pillars of a fearless, EDM‑infused pop. Even laptops can party on the Think Tank stage.
Disiz, the Disappointment
Despite meticulous artistic direction and sparkling instrumental machinery ready to accompany him, the veteran Francophone rapper (and, in a way, pop) left a sense of unfulfillment on We Love Green’s stage. If magic surfaces in flashes, something of the hybrid nature of the almost‑fifty-year-old artist’s music slipped away along the way. As if the sum of the parts of the delicate, gently synthetic tracks from Pacifique, L’Amour, and the lukewarm On s’en rappellera pas ended up yielding a disappointment. Despite enthusiasm, despite the effort to re‑orchestrate his rich discography, everything seemed to converge toward a flattening of Disiz’s sound. A misstep.
The XX, the Comeback
Lost in the roaring set of Ninajirachi, it was easy to forget that Jamie xx, Romy, and Oliver Sim were making their grand return to the stage. After eight long years without live performances, the trio spent that time refining their solo projects, culminating in a farewell-style return on Sunday that felt almost like a rebirth. Beginning with almost immediately the minimalist tracks from their first album in the opening slot (with the notable exception of Intro, which remained an outro), The XX’s comeback was a revival driven by dance. Following a beautiful rendition of VCR, a euphoric high took hold through the remix of On Hold, solo tracks from Romy, Jamie, and Oliver, and the impeccable Loud Places. A welcome tilt in the trio’s sound, and one can imagine that the members were at least as moved as the audience by this shimmering reunion that served as a farewell to We Love Green 2026.
