In the music industry, artists have to adapt in order to endure, and festivals face the same reality. Soundstorm is a case in point. Since launching in Riyadh in 2019, the festival has evolved its format and priorities as it has grown into one of the region’s defining music events.
The initial editions were built around shock and awe. Four days of programming, more than 200 artists and crowds nearing a quarter of a million turned the desert site into the most maximalist festival the region had seen.
Those early years lived up to comparisons with Europe’s biggest electronic events, both in scale and intensity. For many, they remain the most overwhelming versions of Soundstorm, where excess was the point, not a by-product.
Over time, that approach began to loosen and the programme was no longer built around back-to-back electronic dance music. Pop and RnB headliners were added, and moving to three days changed the rhythm of the festival.
The experience became more manageable and less exhausting, with curated stages welcoming a multitude of genres rather than competing for volume.
This year marks the festival’s most significant refurbishment. The site itself remains the same, but the stages have been given new aesthetics and the internal layout has been rethought. The central walkthrough area has been reintroduced as City of Beats, now filled with activations and smaller performance spaces that play everything from indie rock to jazz, alongside places to pause and gather between sets.
Spending time there makes something else clear. Soundstorm now has the beginnings of a recognisable community. You can see it in how people dress, from relaxed, easy looks to more deliberate outfits built around jackets, sunglasses and statement bling pieces that feel specific to the festival.
It suggests an audience that knows the rhythm of the event and returns with shared expectations, rather than simply passing through. The updated layout brings the site closer together and makes the main festival stages easier to access.
The distances are still long. A walk from one end of the site to another is over 1km, so you still have to plan your time, but the routes are more direct.
Here are highlights from the festival's opening day.
Post Malone brings full-band era to Riyadh
With so much happening across the site, this feels like the next stage of Soundstorm, one that also matches where Post Malone now finds himself.
The American rapper's set came at the end of a year in which he moved into stadiums for the first time, selling out large venues across the US and Europe. What began earlier in the year, when he introduced a full-band concert set-up at Coachella, has been worked through on the road.
Rather than marking a stylistic pivot, the show brought his different musical strands into the same space. Hip-hop remained the base, with pop, rock and country influences alongside. The band was central to how that balance held, used almost like an expanded backing track while adding colour and warmth to some of the songs. Wow and Better Now carried added weight through the keyboards and the minor-key lines of pedal steel, while I Fall Apart opened up into a looser, more expressive vocal performance.
Newer material and earlier songs were treated the same way. Dead at the Honky Tonk and I Had Some Help sat comfortably alongside White Iverson and Rockstar.
Tyla steps up to the main stage
Tyla’s appearance came at a point where everything appears to be going according to plan. Her rise has been steady, and part of the wider rise of amapiano, a sound that has travelled from South Africa to some of the most attended festivals in the world.
In that way, her moment at Soundstorm felt like a possible crest in amapiano’s global journey, as DJs and festivals continue to work out how to place the genre on the biggest stages. Tyla is going through her own transition, adapting her approach for large festival settings.
When The National last saw her two years ago, she was playing to a smaller but still well-received crowd, including an afternoon performance in Malmo, Sweden. At Soundstorm, she appeared as a main-stage headliner, with another headline slot scheduled at Sole DXB on Saturday. The jump in scale is immediate.
The question is clear: does she have the act to pull this off? The answer, for now, is she's getting there.
Breakout single Water continued to draw a strong response, built around that implacably steady amapiano groove. Truth or Dare and Art were more vibe-y affairs, with percussive ad-libs and nods to 1990s-era R&B. New single Chanel had Tyla back in her amapiano pocket, only this time with the sleek production that comes with an increasingly bigger budget.
Comparisons to Rihanna will continue to follow her, though the jury is still out. At 23, Tyla is the same age Rihanna was when she released hit album Loud in 2010. The difference lies in the voice. Rihanna, at that point, was refining a style full of Caribbean-inflected swagger, delivered with a colder precision, while Tyla’s style is sultrier yet more vulnerable, allowing her potentially to do more interesting things with it.
Benson Boone’s world domination continues
Fresh from his Abu Dhabi Grand Prix appearance earlier in the week, American pop star Boone arrived at Soundstorm with momentum already behind him. What began at Coachella in April has carried through a Gulf run, with each show adding to a fan base that has grown quickly and visibly.
At Soundstorm, Boone charged in with the same confidence. Dressed in all-black, with shades amplifying the Freddie Mercury echoes that have become part of his look, he delivered another energetic set. Where the Abu Dhabi show leaned closer to a full concert performance, the Soundstorm set launched immediately, reflecting the shape of his festival appearances.
He opened straight away with Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else, followed by Coffee Cake, before settling into the set. His voice sounded remarkably intact, considering how much he has been touring this year. That carried through to Man in Me and Drunk in My Mind, both rooted in more straightforward balladry. The latter, in particular, recalled an Elton John Tumbleweed Connection-era shape, without straying from Boone’s own style.
The set lifted again with Mystical Magical, one of his giddier songs, and one that landed easily with the crowd. By the time Boone left the stage, his Gulf audience looked secure, rounding off a regional run.
Soundstorm festival continues in Riyadh until Saturday
