Eurovision artist Manizha to tour Australia and New Zealand in 2026

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Eurovision artist Manizha will tour Australia and New Zealand in February 2026, with dates announced in Auckland, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

She represented Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with Russian Woman, finishing ninth and becoming the country’s final Eurovision representative to date.

From Eurovision to open dissent

Manizha’s Eurovision appearance in 2021 brought international recognition, but it also placed her in conflict with conservative voices inside Russia due to the song’s feminist message and her outspoken politics.

That divide became irreversible following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when she emerged as one of the most prominent Russian cultural figures to publicly oppose the war.

She described the invasion as a “fraternal conflict” that went “against the will” of Russian people and called for an immediate end to the violence.

Soon after, she wrote publicly:

“I want nothing but peace. Children, women, soldiers are dying here and there.”

A position shaped by lived experience

Manizha’s opposition to the war is rooted in her own childhood.

Born in Tajikistan, she fled the country with her family during the Tajik civil war in the 1990s, an experience she has repeatedly linked to her views on conflict and displacement.

Describing that experience, she told NPR at the time:

“When you see these tragedies from the inside, your position is crystal clear: You never want this to happen to anyone ever again.”

Music as protest

Rather than retreating from public view, Manizha responded through her work.

In the weeks following the invasion, she released Soldier, a song originally written about war in Tajikistan and adapted it as a direct anti-war statement, repeatedly calling to “stop the war”.

She has since continued to release politically explicit material, including the anti-war song Gun, which she described as an appeal for peace not only in Ukraine, but globally.

Speaking to Reuters in 2024, she said:

“The main idea is to create something that will be about peace in Ukraine. Peace in Russia. Peace in Israel. Peace in Palestine.”

Consequences and exile from Russia

Manizha’s stance has carried real consequences.

Her concerts in Russia were cancelled, her work faced informal bans, and she became the target of sustained public attacks from pro-government figures and media.

By 2023, she was no longer able to perform freely in Russia and shifted her career almost entirely abroad, performing across Europe and Central Asia instead.

In 2024, she defied an effective Russian performance ban by singing an anti-war song publicly outside the country, an act widely reported as a direct challenge to cultural censorship.

The February 2026 tour

Her February 2026 tour brings this post-Eurovision, post-Russia chapter to Australia and New Zealand audiences.

Tour dates

10.02 — Auckland, NZ — Raynham Park

12.02 — Sydney, AU — Mary’s Underground

13.02 — Brisbane, AU — Crowbar

14.02 — Melbourne, AU — MEMO Music Hall