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New Zealand music icon Bic Runga has announced the release date of her much-anticipated new album, Red Sunset, and an Australia & Aotearoa New Zealand national tour. Red Sunset will be released on Friday February 13th, 2026.
Recorded in Paris during the winter of 2025, the album is now available for pre-order and is Bic’s first collection of all-original material since 2011’s Belle, marking a radiant new chapter for one of Aotearoa’s most beloved artists.
The album’s lead single and title track, ‘Red Sunset’, is out now — and arrives accompanied by an official music video. A powerful torch song of longing and desire, it evokes the tumultuous emotions of being the one left behind. The song and album are co-produced by Bic Runga and Kody Nielson.
This new single follows previously released tracks, ‘It’s Like Summertime’ — a nostalgic yet forward-looking anthem that fondly recalls carefree days with childhood friends, harnessing those memories to imagine a better future — and ‘Paris in the Rain’ — a cinematic soundscape inspired by the image of Paris, beautiful, yet flooding. Written on the last night of a winter trip, the song came to life watching torrential rain on the Louvre Pyramid. Its distinctive sound was captured on an historic 1807 French Pleyel piano.
The Red Sunset Tour is set to kick off in Aotearoa New Zealand, before making its way to Australia, where Bic will play the Northcote Theatre in Melbourne on Thursday, April 9; the Princess Theatre, Brisbane on Saturday, April 11; Sydney’s City Recital Hall on Sunday, April 12; Canberra Theatre in Canberra on Tuesday, April 14; and finally Freo.Social, Fremantle on Thursday, April 16.
The tour will see her performing songs from the new album alongside beloved classics from her celebrated catalogue — from ‘Drive’ and ‘Sway’ to ‘Beautiful Collision’ and beyond.
Bic Runga is one of New Zealand’s most treasured musicians — a songwriter and performer whose voice is woven into the soundtrack of Kiwi life. Known for her crystalline vocals and timeless melodies, she has spent more than two decades creating songs that feel both intimate and universal.
Born in Christchurch to a Chinese-Malaysian mother and a Māori father, Bic grew up in a home filled with music, teaching herself drums, guitar, and piano.
This curiosity and independence shaped her into an artist who not only writes and sings her own songs but often produces and arranges them too. Her 1997 debut album Drive changed the face of New Zealand pop. Songs like Sway and Drive captured complex emotions with simplicity and grace.
The album went multi-platinum at home, and Sway found its way onto Hollywood film soundtracks, carrying her songs far beyond Aotearoa.
If Drive announced her talent, Beautiful Collision in 2002 confirmed it. With hits like Get Some Sleep and Listening for the Weather, the album became one of New Zealand’s biggest-selling records.
Its warmth and clarity reflected her unique artistry: sophisticated yet unpretentious, polished yet emotionally direct. Later albums, including Birds, Belle, and Close Your Eyes, showed her willingness to experiment and reinterpret her influences while holding onto the purity that first drew listeners in.
A multi-Tūī and Silver Scroll award-winning artist, and the youngest inductee into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame, Bic’s influence can be heard in a new generation of New Zealand musicians who grew up with her songs on the radio and saw in her a model of artistic independence.
In 2026, she returns with Red Sunset, recorded in Paris in the winter of 2025. Bic’s gift has always been her ability to turn personal truths into shared experiences, inviting listeners into her gentle, thoughtful, and beautifully human world.
Saturday 7 March Black Barn Hawkes Bay Saturday 21 March Waikato Regional Theatre Hamilton Friday 27 March Nzicc Theatre Auckland Sunday 29 March Isaac Theatre Royal Christchurch Thursday 2 April Michael Fowler Centre Wellington *with Nzso, Silicon Not Appearing
Thursday 9 April Northcote Theatre Melbourne Saturday 11 April Princess Theatre Brisbane Sunday 12 April City Recital Hall Sydney Tuesday 14 April Canberra Theatre Canberra Thursday 16 April Freo.Social Fremantle
