By Mark Savage, Music Correspondent
After Dua Lipa and Coldplay’s smooth and environment friendly units, Glastonbury’s Sunday night time headliner had a troublesome act to observe.
After a rumoured look by pop queen Madonna fell via, the slot finally went to US R&B star SZA.
Probably the most-streamed artists on the earth, she’s a vibrant, assured performer, whose advanced, messy dissections of contemporary relationships have endeared her to millennial followers.
However their ardour didn’t ignite any magic on the Pyramid Stage.
The star drew the smallest viewers I’ve ever seen for a Glastonbury headliner, in additional than 20 years of coming to the pageant.
It did not assist that, for at the least the primary half an hour, her microphone was each distorted and muffled – a problem for an artist whose attraction lies within the precision of her lyrics and the great thing about their jazzy vocal runs.
The 33-year-old additionally dedicated the pageant sin of failing to handle the gang. Her solely interplay within the present’s first act was to ask if any of her “day one” followers had been current.
“You realize I want you, proper?” she mentioned, maybe acknowledging that this was not her pure viewers.
By the point she obtained to her largest hit – the darkly comedian homicide fantasy Kill Invoice (1.9 billion Spotify streams) – individuals had already drifted away to look at units from The Nationwide, James Blake and London Grammar elsewhere on the location.
That is to not say that SZA placed on a nasty efficiency, or that the hundreds who stayed to the tip of her set had been dissatisfied.
She has spectacular vocal command, projecting to the again of the sector with out sacrificing intimacy.
In the direction of the center of her set, she performed No person Will get Me – a devastating ballad about her battle to let go after breaking apart together with her fiancé. It was by a long way essentially the most weak, shifting efficiency I noticed from a Pyramid Stage headliner all weekend.
Younger followers within the viewers clasped their palms to their chest and mouthed alongside silently.
‘So over it’
Different highlights included the brittle, rock-infused F2F and the 80s-infused pop smash Kiss Me Extra – which she fused with Prince’s Kiss.
It was a visible feast, too, divided into three distinct sections that mapped out the method of getting over a damaged coronary heart.
She began in a dingy cave, the metaphorical fortress of her personal solitude, surrounded by stalactites and performing Drew Barrymore whereas perched on an enormous ant.
For the second part, dubbed “robotic world”, she struggled with conflicting feelings, concurrently pining for her ex and wishing ache upon him, in songs like Snooze, Kill Invoice and I Hate U.
The ultimate section was titled “Coming Dwelling”. SZA, sprouted wings, climbed a tree, and performed a few of her extra liberated, feel-good songs – together with Saturn (about escaping the earth for a greater life) and the self-explanatory Good Days.
Her closing tune was 20 One thing, a declaration of solidarity for anybody else going via the turmoil of their third decade and he or she climbed down from her elaborate set and sang in communion together with her followers within the entrance row.
“Glastonbury, I used to be so nervous about immediately,” she mentioned. “I am so grateful. You’ve gotten my deepest love and my deepest respect. God bless you and please get residence safely.”
With sinuous choregraphy and a compelling stage presence, SZA’s set was a elegant present within the incorrect venue – an issue that has repeatedly blighted this yr’s Glastonbury.
Beloved acts like Sugababes, Fred Once more and Avril Lavigne had been booked into areas too small to deal with their followers; whereas the Pyramid Stage struggled to draw enough numbers for compelling, muscular units by PJ Harvey and Janelle Monae.
Ultimately, it is a disgrace that these performances, like SZA’s will go down in historical past for the incorrect causes.
After the set, the singer posted a message that appeared to acknowledge the destructive response.
“The bravery required to be alive in public is exceptional,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“So over all people doing that [expletive].”
Setlist
- PSA
- Love Galore
- Damaged Clocks
- All of the Stars
- Promenade
- Backyard (Say It Like Dat)
- Drew Barrymore
- F2F
- Forgiveless
- Ghost within the Machine
- Blind
- Shirt
- Kiss Me Extra
- I Hate U
- Snooze
- Kill Invoice
- Low
- Supermodel / Particular
- Open Arms
- No person Will get Me
- Regular Lady
- Saturn
- Wealthy Child Daddy (Drake cowl)
- The Weekend
- Good Days
- 20 One thing
Elsewhere on Sunday, Shania Twain performed the coveted Legends slot, delivering huge, brassy anthems like That Do not Impress Me A lot and Man! I Really feel Like A Girl! whereas conveying a wide-eyed disbelief on the measurement of her viewers.
“I discover moments like this very life-changing and I imply that very sincerely,” she mentioned, choking again tears in direction of the tip of her set.
Over on the Different Stage, Avril Lavigne was just as popular, inflicting main site visitors jams as followers clamoured to listen to era-defining pop-punk hits like Sophisticated and Sk8r Boi.
She kicked off with the brilliantly snotty Girlfriend, and the cartoonish sneer remaining plastered throughout her face for the following hour.
“I can’t consider it’s taken me 22 years to play Glastonbury,” she mentioned. “It’s about time”.
Janelle Monae performed a decent, funky set on the Pyramid Stage – going via a number of costume modifications, together with a duplicate Michael Jackson go well with.
Lithe and limber, she celebrated her sexual freedom on songs like Pink, Yoga, Lipstick Lover and Make Me Really feel, whereas dedicating her set to the queer neighborhood, within the closing hours of Pleasure month.
Later, she expanded that dedication to different marginalised and persecuted teams around the globe.
“I’m proud to face with you as you battle again in opposition to genocide,” she mentioned. “As you battle again in opposition to the criminalisation of homeless individuals. As [politicians] usher in legal guidelines to [regulate] our our bodies.”
She went on to name for an finish to violence in Palestine, Sudan and the Congo – whereas additionally calling out anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
“These are our individuals. So once we see injustice, we all know,” she declared.
It was a robust second, expressed extra eloquently than lots of this weekend’s onstage protests.
She was adopted onstage by Nigerian star Burna Boy, in party-starting temper as he raced via Afro-fusion hits like Sittin’ On Prime Of The World, Ye and Final Final.
Flirting with the viewers all through, he finally eliminated his high and invited everybody else to observe go well with. If it had been hotter, they could have obliged.
Headline units got here from French dance maestros Justice on the West Holts stage and indie-pop group London Grammar, who drew an unlimited crowd to the hillside Park Stage, regardless of singer Hannah Reid’s misgivings about being scheduled in opposition to SZA.
However the largest headliners, when it comes to viewers measurement, had been US indie band The Nationwide, who immersed The Different Stage with epic guitars, wealthy horns, and Matt Berninger’s emotive confessional phrases.
From the intimate Mild Years, to the pounding Abel, their grown-up sound and intense supply capped off an uneven Sunday, as Glastonbury ready to close up store for one more yr.
The pageant will return in 2025, Emily Eavis has confirmed, earlier than taking a fallow yr in 2026.