Her most recent studio album of own work, Exil, was released eight years ago. Her last visit to AB dates from late 2025 and it surprised us too when she turned up on stage here as an unannounced special guest of Roméo Elvis & Oscar and the Wolf.

In the meantime, Axelle Red took the time to set the bar very high for new songs, often up-tempo, with lyrics that can be read at many levels. Her new, long-awaited album is to be released at the end of 2026. And we are more than happy to share our AB with her for that.

For more than three decades, the Belgian singer-songwriter, pop and soul diva has been responsible for a long list of iconic songs like Sensualité, Parce que c’est toi, Je t’attends, Elle danse seule, Le monde tourne mal, À tâtons, Ma prière, Rester femme and Rouge ardent. With thirteen albums, millions of copies sold and tens of millions of streams every year, she developed - as humanist and feminist – into a unique artist who effortlessly combines emotion and commitment.

Axelle’s debut album Sans plus attendre was released in 1993. The pop-soul album was an unprecedented success: with more than 500,000 copies sold, it became one of the best selling albums in Belgian music history. Thanks to the concerts that followed and her second album À tâtons – recorded with some of the best known American soul musicians – she made her definitive international breakthrough.

She developed into an artist who not only made pop history but also commanded respect from musical icons worldwide. Her timeless songs are now being covered by a new generation of French artists, such as Vianney, Clara Luciani, Juliette Armanet and Julien Doré and recently even by Dua Lipa, during her concert at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp.

In addition to her musical successes, Axelle developed further as an activist. She campaigned for human rights, worked together with UNICEF, was an ambassador for Handicap International and spoke out about the position of women worldwide long before #MeToo.

This commitment took on a powerful form on her album Sisters & Empathy (2009), entirely devoted to injustice towards women, child marriage and female genital mutilation: issues she was directly confronted with during her humanitarian work. Whereas she sang on Sans plus attendre: “Le monde tourne mal… Let’s dance”, after Sisters & Empathy she felt the need to do more to use her music as a voice for change.

This combination of passion, sensitivity and altruism is a running theme throughout her career: “It’s about all of us being able to seize our opportunities and pursue our happiness, but we have to ask ourselves to what extent we make others pay the price for this.”

Her approach to performing has also evolved: “In the past it was veni, vidi, vici, see what I can do. Now I mainly seek ways to share something with an audience, to make real contact.” And that is exactly what makes her concerts so unique. Today, Axelle Red is stronger than ever on stage. Few artists know how to build such a consistent career while remaining innovative at the same time.