Pop icon Dua Lipa brought day one of Glastonbury Festival 2024 to a close on Friday night with an energetic and memorable set on the Pyramid Stage. The pop star, who took home the Brit Award for best pop act in March, headlined the festival for the first time and opened with her track “Training Season.” The 28-year-old told the crowd, “I can’t believe this, I’ve dreamed about this my whole life. And I can’t believe I’m right up here, right here, with you guys, I am so happy to be here with you guys tonight.”
Around 40 minutes into her set, she sent the crowd wild as she introduced a surprise guest—Kevin Parker, aka Tame Impala. The pair then sang a duet of Tame Impala’s “The Less I Know the Better,” leaving many watching at home speechless. Social media erupted with excitement. One user wrote, “Didn’t realize I needed to see Dua Lipa and Tame Impala ‘The Less I Know the Better’ on stage FAIRS,” while another added, “Dua Lipa and Richard Parker of Tame Impala are the incredible duet I never knew I needed.”
Ahead of the weekend, Glastonbury organizer Emily Eavis said Dua Lipa was “born” to headline the festival. Coldplay and SZA will also headline the world-famous Pyramid Stage over the next few days, while Shania Twain will take the Legends Slot. The full list of performers is huge, including Avril Lavigne, Cyndi Lauper, The Last Dinner Party, and Camila Cabello.
Glastonbury was founded by Sir Michael Eavis on his Somerset farm in 1970. While he is still involved, his daughter Emily and her husband Nick Dewey now take on the majority of the organization. The BBC’s coverage of Glastonbury will be available across iPlayer, BBC Sounds, TV, radio, and online, including its non-stop Classic Glastonbury channel streaming 24 hours a day from now until Sunday, June 30.
Dua Lipa lit up the Glastonbury Festival on Friday night, not just with the many fireworks that went off during her set. The pop star surprised the crowd by bringing out Kevin Parker of Tame Impala fame—who produced her latest album, “Radical Optimism”—for a duet of the band’s hit “The Less I Know the Better.”
Before bringing out Parker, Lipa played a mix of new songs and her biggest hits, including “Training Season,” “One Kiss,” and “Levitating.” Addressing the crowd, Lipa said she had manifested this moment. “I have written this moment down, I’ve wished for it, I’ve dreamt it,” she said. “When I wrote it down, I said I really want to headline the Pyramid stage on a Friday night so I can party the next two days at the best place on earth.”
Lipa’s set was a full-blown production, complete with throngs of dancers and a live band. Though she was clearly well-rehearsed and had much of the crowd dancing, plenty of festivalgoers left before its end, likely due to its clash with sets from Fontaines DC, Jamie xx, and Jungle.
Lipa is headlining the U.K. festival this year alongside Coldplay and SZA. The pop star released her third album, “Radical Optimism,” in May, which debuted atop the U.K. Albums chart with the biggest opening weekend for a British woman in three years. In an interview with Radio Times before the festival, the London native said the “barometer for any music I’ve ever made” has been “What is this going to sound like at Glastonbury?”
“That is the pinnacle for me,” she added. Lipa revealed that she got the offer to headline in November 2022. “I’m very good at keeping secrets, and it’s also been the best secret, so I’ve kept it very happily,” she said. “For ages I was just a complete puddle… like, jet lag delusion in the moment. That was at the end of my ‘Future Nostalgia’ tour, and then I was still writing my new record, so I had in the back of my mind, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to be performing some of these songs at Glastonbury!’”
Lipa became a pandemic-era breakout with the release of 2020’s “Future Nostalgia,” which won a Grammy for best pop vocal album. In 2021, she collaborated with Elton John on his remix “Cold Heart,” and in 2023 she contributed the song “Dance the Night” to the “Barbie” soundtrack in addition to appearing in the film.
“The one thing I can tell you is that this will be a one-off—it will only ever happen at Glastonbury and that will be it,” Lipa further teased of her set. “I think that’s what makes shows at Glastonbury so special.”
Dua Lipa paid back the favor of Tame Impala‘s Kevin Parker having helped her write and produce her latest album, Radical Optimism, by bringing him out for two surprise appearances during her headlining set last night (June 28) at the U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival. The artists first covered the Tame Impala favorite “The Less I Know the Better,” with Lipa admitting to the crowd that the experience was a long time in the making.
“This is someone who I deeply admire musically,” she said of Parker. “Someone I who I feel very lucky to call my friend. Someone who I’ve been very, very lucky to work with. And as far as making dreams come true go, I’m just going to add another one to the list tonight of this already unf*ckingbelievable evening. Because tonight, I get to pretend that I’m in Tame Impala.”
Dressed in typical unassuming fashion in a white t-shirt and jeans, Parker returned to play guitar on the final song of the 19-song set, “Houdini,” one of his co-writes on Radical Optimism. The artist has kept a low public profile since Tame Impala wrapped a short international tour in May 2023 but is believed to be working on the group’s follow-up to 2020’s The Slow Rush.
Beyond Parker’s guest turns, Lipa’s set featured such hits as “One Kiss,” “Levitating,” and “Physical,” plus her Elton John interpolation “Cold Heart” and the live debut of the Radical Optimism track “Falling Forever.”
Coldplay closed Saturday night at Glastonbury as they headlined the Pyramid Stage for a record-breaking fifth time, after pop star Dua Lipa dazzled the crowds on Friday (28 June). In a career-spanning set, the band performed a number of their biggest hits including “Yellow,” “Paradise,” “The Scientist,” “Fix You,” and “Clocks,” while also bringing out a number of surprise guests including rapper Little Simz, singer Laura Mvula, plus Back to the Future star Michael J Fox.
Frontman Chris Martin also spoke of the “divided time on Earth” and thanked the huge crowd for showing that “most humans can gather together very peacefully.”
Across the weekend, an eclectic lineup will perform on the sprawling festival’s various stages. Lipa, 28, impressed The Independent’s critics with a set comprising some of her biggest hits, along with singles from her latest album, Radical Optimism.
Source: Variety, Spin, The Independent
