Muse share emotional Diogo Jota tribute during Portuguese festival gig

Muse played a tribute to Diogo Jota at the NOS Alive 2025 festival just hours before Sunday's Liverpool game. The band played in the footballer's home country, Portugal, on Saturday night, which is just over a week since Jota died in a car crash in Spain.

The band took to the stage in Lisbon for the last night of the three day festival. They started their set at 9.15pmas they performed some of the most well-known songs.

They then made a subtle tribute to Jota at the festival, which came just days after his and his brother's tragic deaths on July 3. Guitarist Christopher Wolstenholme wore a Portuguese national football strip for the set, and before the encore, he turned around to reveal Diogo Jota's name and the number 21, which is the number he wore for the team.

The crowd broke out into a roar of applause as Jota's name appeared on the screen behind the band. The concert took place around 200 miles down the coast from where he grew up with his brother Andre.

This tribute comes just before Liverpool are due to play their first match since Jota's death. Liverpool will take on Preston on Sunday afternoon in what is sure to be an emotional match.

Jota and his brother Andre will be honoured ahead of kick-off as singer Claudia Rose Maguire is set to perform renditions of Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling In Love and Liverpool anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone shortly before 3pm.

Representatives from Liverpool and Preston will lay wreaths in front of the away end, known as the Bill Shankly Kop. The crowd at Deepdale will also observe a minute's silence before kick-off, and both teams will wear black armbands for the match.

Liverpool manager Arne Slot has given his own tribute ahead of the special match as he explained that all of the players, as well as himself, are still mourning the loss of their teammate.

He said: "Nothing seems to be important if we think of what has happened. It’s very difficult to find the right words because we constantly debate what is appropriate.

"Can we train again? Can we laugh again? And I’ve said to them, maybe the best thing for us to do is handle this situation like Jota was.

"And what I meant with that is that Jota was always himself, it didn’t matter if he was talking to me, to his teammates, to the staff, he was always himself. So let us try to be ourselves as well."

Jota was just 28-years-old when he died in the crash alongside his 25-year-old brother. Jota was a dad to three children and married his long-term partner Rute Cardoso just 11 days before.

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