When Luke Combs stepped onto the O2 Arena stage on 19 October 2023, something had shifted. The 33-year-old from North Carolina wasn’t playing a polite country showcase for expats. He was headlining one of the world’s most iconic venues to 20,000 people, a crowd that knew every word of songs written in Nashville bars thousands of miles away. Two years later, he’s selling out Wembley Stadium three times over. The O2 shows weren’t just concerts. They were the moment British audiences fully embraced him.
From Bouncer to Billboard Number One
The trajectory reads like fiction. Born in Huntersville, North Carolina in 1990 and raised in Asheville, Combs was a criminal justice student at Appalachian State University who worked as a bouncer. At 21, he picked up a guitar from a closet and taught himself chords. Within months he was playing that same bar for $200 a night. With just 21 hours of coursework remaining, he dropped out and drove to Nashville.
He arrived in 2014 with two self-released EPs. A co-writer connected him with producer Scott Moffatt, and the resulting EP caught the attention of River House Artists. By late 2016, Columbia Nashville had signed him. His debut single “Hurricane” topped Billboard’s Country Airplay chart in May 2017, and he never looked back.
The debut album This One’s for You spent 44 weeks at number one on Top Country Albums, a record for a male artist. His sophomore effort What You See Is What You Get in 2019 topped the all-genre Billboard 200. As of 2026, Combs has amassed 18 number-one singles on the Country Airplay chart, a streak without modern parallel in the genre.
The Fast Car Phenomenon
March 2023 changed everything. Combs released a cover of Tracy Chapman’s 1988 classic “Fast Car” on his album Gettin’ Old. His father had played him the Chapman cassette tape in his pickup truck as a child. The connection was personal. The public response was seismic.
The single peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, spent 17 weeks in the top five, and sold the equivalent of five million copies within six months. It topped both the Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts simultaneously and became the first song by a male solo artist to reach number one on both Hot AC and Country radio. At the 2024 Grammy Awards, Chapman herself joined Combs on stage for a surprise duet that received a standing ovation. Combs later called it a defining moment of his career.
The song’s success introduced Combs to listeners who had never sought out country music. It made him a streaming juggernaut. By early 2025, “When It Rains It Pours” and “Beautiful Crazy” had each surpassed one billion streams on Spotify, making Combs the first country artist in history to hold two billion-stream songs on the platform. His total Spotify streams across all tracks exceed 36 billion on-demand audio streams globally, placing him among the top 75 most-streamed artists worldwide.
What Happened at the O2
The October 2023 O2 shows formed the European climax of Combs’ World Tour, which had already broken attendance records across Australia, New Zealand, and Scandinavia. The European leg sold out instantly. Two O2 dates were announced initially; a second was added after the first sold out in minutes.
The setlist that night was relentless. Opening with “Lovin’ On You,” Combs barrelled through 20 songs in roughly two hours, hitting every signature moment the crowd demanded. “Beautiful Crazy” drew a deafening singalong. “Hurricane” whipped the arena into a frenzy. His band introduction medley, a rotating showcase of covers from David Lee Murphy, Alabama, and Bruno Mars, injected spontaneity. Then came the closing salvo: “1, 2 Many” – during which Combs shotgunned a beer and hurled the empty can into the crowd – followed by “When It Rains It Pours” and “Beer Never Broke My Heart,” which the Entertainment Focus review described as practically taking the roof off the arena.
For the encore, he stripped things back with “Better Together,” couples swaying together under the lights, before finishing with “The Kind of Love We Make.” Reviewers praised Combs’ ability to hold 20,000 people in his palm without flashy staging or pyrotechnics, relying purely on vocal power and audience connection.
The Awards Haul
Combs has won six Country Music Association Awards, including Entertainer of the Year in both 2021 and 2022. He holds five Academy of Country Music Awards and three Billboard Music Awards, plus eight Grammy nominations. Inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2019 and the Music City Walk of Fame in 2025, he was the first country artist to have four RIAA Diamond-certified singles.
What Comes Next
Combs returns to the UK in July and August 2026 with his My Kinda Saturday Night Tour: two nights at Scottish Gas Murrayfield in Edinburgh on 24 and 25 July, then three consecutive nights at Wembley Stadium in London on 31 July, 1 and 2 August. From a 20,000-capacity arena to three nights at a 90,000-capacity stadium – for a genre that has historically struggled to fill large UK venues, the numbers speak to a genuine cultural moment. Country music in Britain is no longer niche, and Luke Combs is the artist who proved it.
The 2026 setlist runs 25 songs across two hours, featuring new material from The Prequel EP alongside every hit. Openers vary by date and include Dierks Bentley, Thomas Rhett, The Script, and The Teskey Brothers.
Luke Combs plays Wembley Stadium, London on 31 July, 1 and 2 August 2026. Tickets are available via Ticketmaster UK. For more on his full discography and touring history, see our country music concert guide.
Luke Combs plays Wembley Stadium, London on 31 July, 1 and 2 August 2026. Tickets are available via Ticketmaster UK. For more on his full discography and touring history, see our country music concert guide.
