The American singing star is heading back to Manchester for her biggest ever gig here this year – Brandi Carlile talks collabs, taking her kids to see a match here, and her thoughts on the Oasis reunion
Brandi Carlile with Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran on stage in New York in December(Image: Getty Images for Capitol Records)
American singer, songwriter and activist Brandi Carlile is preparing for her biggest ever European tour, fresh from a stellar year that included a standout appearance at Glastonbury and high-profile collaborations with some of the biggest stars in music.
She scored a number one album with her childhood idol Sir Elton John, won huge acclaim for her own album Returning to Myself and just before Christmas was seen on stage with Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran in Sam’s big To Be Free New York City residency.
Now, she’s preparing for her own biggest ever European tour, and we can probably expect a fair few surprises and collabs on the way with that too. When CityLife catches up with Brandi over zoom, she is excited about her “biggest European tour by far”.
And the biggest of those arenas will be right here in Manchester at the Co-op Live – now the biggest indoor arena in Europe I tell her as she takes a bit of a gulp. “I didn’t know that, wow,” she says.
Before adding: “I do feel like if I get the privilege of playing an arena now and again my job is to make that place feel as small as I possibly can – to make that place feel like there’s an individual connection with every single person.
“If I’m honest the bravado, the grandiose nature of singing in a place like that, that’s when you feel like your childhood dreams have come true you know when you’re hearing your voice reonsate around a room like that. It can make any singer feel like Whitney Houston.”
Heading to Co-op Live will also be quite a step up on venue size from her previous outings in Manchester. She laughs: “You know, I was looking at my venue history in Manchester before, and I noticed I played the NIght and Day in 2000, is that still around? That was to 250 people. Then in 2009 I played the Academy 2 – for 900 people.
“Then we played the Opera House [in June 2025], then now we’re about to play this massive, massive arena. It’s wild.”
Brandi Carlile is preparing for her biggest ever European tour in 2026(Image: Collier Shorr)
Grammy-award winning Brandi has had a long and acclaimed career in music, with her back catalogue spanning genres of folk, rock, country and classic rock ‘n’ roll over the past 20 years. But it’s her recent years of collabs that appear to have catapulted her into the global mainstream.
UK music heavily influenced Washington-raised Brandi growing up, including Elton John, Queen, George Michael and The Beatles. She adds: “In latter years Oasis and Joy Division too.”
How has it felt to go on to collaborate with some of her biggest idols? Brandi says: “When I discovered Elton John I was 11 years old, as my obsession heightened I became obsessed with everything about Elton John, so when he did that album Made in England, all I could think about was growing up and getting to England – that was my primary goal.
“That’s a really profound thing for a young person living in the way I lived, out in the middle of nowhere, in a tiny single mobile home, to have my sights set on England at 12,13 years old. It’s not something I ever take for granted when that plane touches down.”
Sir Elton John and Brandi Carlile on the Graham Norton Show in 2025(Image: PA)
The last time she touched down here in Manchester was in June – just before the Oasis reunion tidal wave was about to hit the city. Did she get to see the band while here in the UK?
She says: “I didn’t get to see them but I remember reading all about it, that it was so life-affirming and cool to see that. Just the fact they finished the tour in general, that’s a win!”
Naturally fans will be pondering if she will have any guests coming out on stage for her upcoming Humans Tour. And it’s a big yes to that.
She says: “I’m still working on that, how I want to construct that. It’s definitely a big part of my shows, and my ethos, that I do love a collaboration, I love a throwdown jam, and when I choose a collaborator or opener on the tour, I’m choosing it on that moment, or several moments where we all learn a cover together, or they do my song, and I do their song, we find a way to bring those two artists together, they are the key moments in my shows historically that make a great, great live event.”
Brandi sang with Sam Smith in New York in December(Image: Getty Images for Capitol Records)
In terms of artists she would be keen to work with coming up? “That question comes up a lot and it really scares me, I don’t know why,” she laughs. “I don’t feel like I’ve discovered them all yet, collaborations come up in mystical ways and take you by surprise. There’s so many artists, younger artists I’m excited about, as well as all the legends, I want to continue collaborating with Elton and Joanie and Tania and The Indigo Girls, Bonnie Rait, my heroes. I miss collaborating with the ones who’ve gone. I hold those moments like meeting of souls really dear.”
What does Brandi like to do when she heads out on tour? “I like to just walk around, get myself a coffee, take my kids and show them things they haven’t seen before.”
Her kids. Evangeline Ruth, 10, and Elijah, 7, with wife Catherine Shepherd “always” come on tour with her she says. “I can’t do life without those two,” she smiles.
And it sounds like they might enjoy something in particular about Manchester when they get here – our two Premier League football clubs.
For Brandi says: “Both of my girls are really into sports, they’re really into baseball and football… your football, soccer!” she clarifies with a hoot.
I suggest they might be keen to catch a match at either Manchester United or Manchester City when she’s in town in October then – not least with Co-op Live being right next to the Etihad Stadium home of the Blues. “Oh my god, if there’s a game on I wouldn’t be able to miss it, they [her daughters] would never forgive me!” she exclaims.
Do her girls think she’s cool yet, I ponder? Brandi smiles: “I think they do, I don’t think that was the case when they were younger though! I don’t think they’ve really understood my job, that my job is unique, they’re just used to it.
“Only recently their schoolfriends have started noticing that, hmm yeah, maybe there’s something slightly magical about it.”
Brandi with Jamie Lee Curtis when both were honoured at The Out100 event in Hollywood in 2023(Image: Getty Images for Out.com)
In terms of the tour, with the first leg starting in America in February and March, she’s already well underway for designing something spectacular “we’re bringing in all the bells and whistles and pulling out all the stops to make it a dynamic arena show,” she says.
“I’ve started to think about it a lot. I like shape changers on stage, I like the stage not to just be the band comes out and plays a two hour show, I like moments where the band leaves and I’m alone, or only the acoustic players come out, or a full-on unabashed tidal wave of rock that’s just unstoppable – for the shapes and dynamics to change constantly. I like it to feel like you can never up to go for a beer. Some thing is going to change every five minutes.”
The European leg begins in Dublin on October 15, before she heads to England for the Co-op Live gig on October 18, then on to dates in Glasgow, London and then European cities like Paris, Amsterdam and Lisbon.
How does she physically prepare for a tour of this magnitude? “As I’ve gotten older I’ve got really responsible about my singing voice, whatever happens is total spontaneity so I have to keep it in tip top shape, I’m really big on physical warm ups.
“Whereas before I used to drink whisky and get hyped up, talk about your trash backstage and then go out and play a show like it’s nothing, but it’s not that way anymore, I need to be singing at a really potent level.”
So no whisky before the show anymore? “Definitely after,” she laughs.
Brandi Carlile plays Co-op Live on October 18 on The Humans Tour. Tickets are available now from £55.50.