Keith Urban Tickets

Four-time Grammy Award winner Keith Urban is heading out on his The Speed Of Now World Tour 2022, performing multiple UK dates. His first performance here in nearly three years, Urban will play five UK cities in April and May 2022.

Born in New Zealand, raised in Australia, it was stateside in the city of Nashville where country music star Keith Urban found success. Picking up a guitar for the first time at the age of six, Keith had a natural flare with the strings and won several talent competitions as a child. This also helped the young musician get comfortable on the stage, eventually incorporating singing into his performance. 

Taking inspiration from American greats like Glen Campbell, Dolly Parton and Jimmy Webb, Keith was always looking to the US for musical inspiration, eventually becoming obsessed with the technique of Dire Straits lead guitarist Mark Knopfler. 

As the country music genre began to evolve in the 90s, Urban’s rock & roll style was a welcomed addition. Signing with Australia’s EMI Records, Urban released his debut album and landed a number of singles on the Australian charts. 

Eventually moving to the place he considered the birthplace of the genre, Urban packed up and relocated to Nashville, Tennessee with friend and drummer Peter Clarke. The pair started the band Ranch when they arrived and landed a record deal with Capitol Nashville. The group’s self-titled album was released in 1997 and performed relatively well. However, Urban quickly developed problems with his throat and the band eventually broke up. 

While on vocal rest, Urban utilised his guitar skills to perform on records with the likes of Garth Brooks, Dixie Chicks and producer Matt Rollings. Rollings made such an impression on Urban that the Australian asked him to produce his next solo release. Keith Urban was released in 1999 and included four hit singles that helped further propel the artist’s career in America. After the release, Urban supported country music superstars like Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Dwight Yoakam on tour. 

Over the next few years, Urban released a number of chart-topping singles and two hit albums in Golden Road and Be Here. With these, Urban also became a regular nominee at music awards ceremonies like the Grammys. In 2006, Urban’s celebrity status was also growing as he announced his engagement to actress and fellow Australian, Nicole Kidman.

Urban’s album Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy Thing was released later that year. While it didn’t perform as well as its predecessors, Urban’s tour with Carrie Underwood, who had recently won the hit TV series American Idol, helped the record go double platinum in the US. After welcoming his first child with Kidman, Urban’s next record (a re-recorded version of You Look Good In My Shirt) landed him back at the top of the 2008 charts. 

By 2009, Urban was releasing Defying Gravity, an album filled with songs inspired by his marriage to Kidman and his new life as a dad including Sweet Thing and Kiss A Girl. Before the end of 2010, Urban was back with another album, Get Closer. A year later, Urban moved home to Australia to work on the country’s version of The Voice but opted not to return for the second season, instead heading back to Nashville to start work on his eighth album. 

In 2012, Urban was invited to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry and was inducted a month later. After impressing TV execs with his work as a judge on The Voice in Australia, Urban joined the judging panel on American Idol in 2013.  

Despite an increasingly busy schedule, Urban released his album, Fuse, in 2013, this time incorporating elements of funk and hip-hop. The album resulted in five Top Ten Billboard singles. The artist had similar chart success with his ninth album, Ripcord, which topped the US charts in 2016.

Urban reflected on the #MeToo movement in his 2017 single, Female, which was the first release from his Graffiti U album of 2018, before again changing things up for his 2020 album, The Speed of Now, Vol.1, which topped the charts. By the end of the year, Urban was named one of Australia’s 50 Greatest Artists of All Time by Rolling Stone Australia.