Swedish singer-songwriter JENS LEKMAN will return to Australia in March 2018, for an exciting run of shows including dates with Grizzly Bear, headline dates in solo and band mode, plus an already announced appearance at Tasmania’s A Festival called Panama.

Kicking off at Melbourne Zoo's famed Zoo Twilights on Friday 9th March, Jens will traverse the East Coast, taking in Sydney's Oxford Art Factory for an intimate solo show on Tuesday 13th March, followed by a night at Queensland Performing Arts Centre with Grizzly Bear on Wednesday 14th March, two shows at Brisbane's The Junk Bar on Thursday 15th March, closing with a full band show in the round at Melbourne's The Night Cat on Friday 16th March.

Bringing his hooky upbeat pop melodies to Australia for the first time since 2013, Jens will be fresh from extensive North American and European touring when he touches down on the East Coast in March.

"As youth turns to the beginnings of middle age, Jens Lekman has evolved and yet remains as captivating and as charming as ever" - The Line Of Best Fit

Across three studio albums, Jens has proven not only his flair for telling very personal stories with a sharp self-awareness, but also his skill for balancing depth of emotional expression with droll and often self-deprecating detail. It's a winning pop combination.

His fourth, Life Will See You Now, was released earlier this year through Secretly Canadian/Inertia. It's a collection of stories about people coming face to face with their fears and with the choices they've made and have to make. A typical Lekman album in several ways, it inverts pop's writing norm by making songs with sad concerns sound happy and songs with a happy subject sound sad; and it plays with notions of identity and the self.

In Life Will See You Now, Lekman takes a musical leap, invoking influence from funk, gospel and disco. The ten-track offering garnered praise from critics and tastemakers the world over, with The Line Of Best Fit naming it "one of the year's most joyful and gratifying pop albums".

"... it gets words, melodies, hooks, wit, emotion and care right. And that's plenty enough to make it a keeper" - Bernard Zuel

"wry lyrics, string-swept samples, and winsome croon" - Sydney Morning Herald (4 stars)

"revels in strong songwriting and brilliant hooks" - Rolling Stone

Lekman's quirky love song 'Your Arms Around Me' was showcased in 2009 feature film Whip It!, starring Drew Barrymore and Ellen Page, he has appeared on late night television shows including The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, and in 2011 recorded a Tiny Desk performance for NPR, which can be viewed here.

 Supported by Emma Russack and e4444e