SOUL star Lemar’s fourth studio album The Reason is out now.

And the singer–songwriter has announced a UK tour including dates at the Liverpool Philharmonic on Tuesday, March 17 and the Manchester Apollo on Friday, April 17 next year.

Lemar released his debut album Dedicated almost five years ago and since then he has become the most successful black British soul artist of our time, commandeering the radio airwaves with the hit singles 50/50, Dance (With U), If There’s Any Justice and Its Not That Easy.

With three top ten UK albums, he has sold more than two million albums and been awarded two MOBO Awards and two BRIT Awards.

His latest album is set to capture an even wider audience, after two years crafting the LP in Los Angeles, Miami and Sweden, with producers such as Jim Johnson (Lil Wayne), Jack Splash (Alicia Keys and Cee-Lo) and Salaam Remi (Amy Winehouse, Nas and The Fugees).

Lemar said: “I didn’t go into the studio with an agenda; I tried to remind myself of the reasons why I do music, the reasons why I wanted to be an artist in the first place and the reasons behind life.”

The first single, If She Knew, co-produced by SoulShock and Karlin, combines Lemar’s heartfelt lyrics with layers of acoustic guitar.

His signature balladry features on the album too, including the piano driven Mayday and he ventures back to his soul roots with the infectious Over You and the up tempo feel good track Heartbreaker produced by Jim Beanz (Timbaland, Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado) and Weight Of The World produced by Jim Johnson.

Tickets priced £25 are available from gigsandtours.com and the 24–hour hotline 0871 2200 260 or 0151 709 3789 and 0844 477 7677 for the Liverpool and Manchester dates respectively.