Sigur Rós played four autumn nights with the London Contemporary Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, raising money for War Child along the way.
Sigur Rós, the Icelandic post-rock band, opened four nights with the London Contemporary Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington on Tuesday 30 September 2025. The run closed on Friday 3 October.
Jónsi Birgisson and Georg Hólm formed the band in Reykjavík in January 1994. Its name, meaning ‘Victory Rose’, came from Jónsi’s younger sister Sigurrós, born a few days before. Keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson joined in 1998.
International acclaim came with the second album, Ágætis byrjun, in 1999. Radiohead, Coldplay and David Bowie praised it, and two of its songs appeared in Vanilla Sky, the Cameron Crowe film. Jónsi sings in Icelandic and in a wordless vocal language the band calls Vonlenska.
Sveinsson, the only member with musical training, wrote most of the band’s orchestral and string arrangements. A run with a full orchestra drew directly on that side of their work.
Each night began at 20:00 and played in two halves around a 25-minute interval. The band partnered with PLUS1 on the run to raise money for War Child, which works with children affected by war.