The 60th anniversary edition of the historic Montreux Jazz Festival officially kicked off with an unforgettable, one-night-only opening performance from British superstar RAYE. Co-created alongside Audemars Piguet, the specially commissioned production, titled This Stage May Contain Moments in Time, transformed Switzerland's Auditorium Stravinski into an immersive arena featuring a bespoke rotating stage beneath vast, projection-mapped fabric sails.
Marking her third consecutive annual appearance at the festival, RAYE surprised the packed crowd by bringing out global music icons Alicia Keys and Mark Ronson for a series of high-profile collaborations. In a historic festival milestone, Alicia Keys joined RAYE on stage for the first time the two artists have ever performed together live, delivering a powerful duet of "If I Ain't Got You" before concluding their joint set with a moving rendition of RAYE's own track, "Oscar Winning Tears."
Earlier in the evening, legendary producer and songwriter Mark Ronson shocked the sold-out audience by emerging just 20 minutes into the show to perform his chart-topping hit "Uptown Funk." The pair followed up the energetic performance by launching into their joint track, "Suzanne," marking another memorable addition to Ronson's extensive history of performing at Montreux alongside stars like Adele and Nile Rodgers.
The rest of the performance served as a curated musical retrospective honoring six decades of the festival's legendary history. RAYE opened the set with "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" as a direct homage to Nina Simone, who performed a historic set on the exact same date 50 years prior. The band also treated fans to unique interpretations of classic tracks associated with Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Al Green, and James Brown, while seamlessly threading nods to Aretha Franklin and Prince into the arrangements of her own discography. Selected concerts across the festival's landmark anniversary season will continue to stream live and free via the official Montreux Jazz Festival YouTube channel.
