asphalt Festival 2026: Kira Hummen & The Dove

Kira Hummen redefines alternative pop in a refreshing way. Her multi-layered sound is a mixture of indie and art pop, in which soul and hip-hop also find a place - music that cannot be pigeonholed. Having grown up on the Lower Rhine, she now lives in Düsseldorf and is a well-known figure in the city's music scene. She composes, writes and produces her songs herself. She creates impressive soundscapes with her guitar, drum machine and her sometimes elfishly delicate, sometimes powerful voice. Kira Hummen has already recorded two albums and her current EP "Her Legacy" (2025) is dedicated to her female heritage. Her songs tell of the women who came before us and paved the way, who passed on stories and wisdom, but also pain and trauma. Kira Hummen's enormous talent has not gone unnoticed: in 2021 she was nominated as best newcomer by popNRW, and in 2022 she performed at the c/o pop Festival. In 2023, she opened the Tampere Jazz Happening in Finland and forged new connections with other European artists through the Playground Residence 2024. In 2024, she was the winner of the City of Düsseldorf's Band Professionalisation Award, and in 2025 she was nominated for the popNRW Award in the "Outstanding Artist" category.

Täubling - whose full name is Amadeus Magnus Ephraima Täubling - shatters the conventions of the rap genre. The self-proclaimed professor of applied, radical misanthropy plays the role of a looser on stage who barely knows how to express himself, but tries anyway. He constantly switches between two artistic figures: the pigeon responsible for performance and speech-singing and the pianist Jean-Baptiste Réval, a specialist in tenderly perverse piano chansons as well as the professor's life partner and boy toy. The pigeon always hides his face behind a nightmarish rabbit mask, otherwise he is characterised by an extremely well-groomed appearance. Between excessive self-aggrandisement and bottomless self-hatred, the pigeon proves to be a gifted storyteller whose performances develop a hypnotic charm. "Behind the provocations lies highly dramatic, traumatised and traumatising music that is unparalleled in Germany," says the Kölner Stadtrevue. Or, to put it in the words of one concertgoer: "I was so aggressive that I wanted to hit him. It was great!" (Source: asphalt Festival gGmbH)