Culture 4 min read By Lauren Baxter
Gorillaz Open 2026 North American Tour with 24-Song Set in Orlando
Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's virtual band launched The Mountain Tour at Orlando's Kia Center, drawing from their debut through their latest album.
Gorillaz opened their 2026 North American tour with a 24-song set at Orlando's Kia Center, launching the run behind their newest album, The Mountain. The performance marked the first date of the tour and drew from across the virtual band's catalog, spanning their self-titled debut, Demon Days, Plastic Beach, Humanz, and the new record.
The show began with the title track «The Mountain» followed by «The Happy» — a pairing that placed the group's latest material at the front of the set rather than saving it for an encore. Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's project has long treated its live performances as a hybrid of concert and multimedia presentation, and the Orlando opener followed that pattern with a full visual production accompanying the music.
The setlist's range reflected the band's two-decade evolution. Tracks from the 2001 self-titled debut sat alongside selections from Demon Days, the 2005 album that brought the project mainstream attention, and Plastic Beach, its 2010 follow-up. Humanz, released in 2017, was also represented, as were songs from The Mountain, the group's most recent studio album.
For a virtual band, the touring model is unusual: Albarn performs live with a rotating cast of collaborators while Hewlett's animated characters remain the project's public face. That structure has allowed Gorillaz to move between rock, hip-hop, electronic music, and pop without the constraints of a fixed lineup, and the Orlando set drew on that breadth.
The Mountain Tour is scheduled to continue across North America following the Orlando launch. The opening night drew attention for its length — 24 songs is a substantial set by the standards of most arena acts — and for the balance it struck between new material and the older songs that built the band's audience.
Gorillaz first emerged in 1998 as a collaboration between Albarn, the Blur frontman, and Hewlett, the comic artist behind Tank Girl. The project's debut album arrived in 2001 and established a template in which animated characters — 2-D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle, and Russel Hobbs — served as the band's members while Albarn and a shifting group of guest musicians handled the actual recordings.
That approach has produced a catalog of collaborations with artists from across genres, and it has made Gorillaz a fixture of festival lineups and arena tours. The band's live shows typically combine the animated visuals with a full backing band, placing the cartoon universe and the concert stage in the same frame.
The Orlando opener offered an early look at how The Mountain translates to a live setting. By opening with the album's title track and following it with «The Happy,» the band signaled that the new record would anchor the show rather than serve as a brief interlude between hits.
For fans who have followed the project since its early singles, the setlist's reach across five albums provided a survey of the band's development. For newer listeners drawn in by The Mountain, the show placed the latest songs in the context of the older material that shaped the group's sound.
The tour's North American leg follows the release of The Mountain and represents the band's latest extended run through the region. Further dates are expected to continue the format established in Orlando, with the same mix of new songs and catalog staples.
