US R&B star SZA admitted she was “so nervous” as she closed out her headlining set on the Pyramid Stage on the final night at Glastonbury. The singer appeared to have some sound issues during her performance, with fans watching at home complaining that her vocals appeared distorted or muffled. However, the crowd of revellers at Worthy Farm sang along to hits including “Love Galore,” “F2F,” “I Hate U,” and “Kiss Me More,” her collaboration with Doja Cat, which was interspersed with Prince’s “Kiss.”
The star, whose real name is Solana Rowe, appeared on stage on an elevated podium to open her show with her Travis Scott collaboration “Love Galore.” She was then lowered down to the stage, which was adorned with elaborate pillars and a large insect, which she sat on for her rendition of the ballad “Drew Barrymore.” Dressed in a patterned bodysuit and flat boots with neon laces that ran up to her thighs, she asked her assembled fans, “Do I have any day ones in the crowd?”
SZA brandished two machetes during her rendition of her track “Kill Bill,” which takes its name from the Quentin Tarantino film starring Uma Thurman. She then changed into a forest green gown adorned with leaves, teamed with metallic wings, for her track “Supermodel,” from her debut album “Ctrl.” During the track “Nobody Gets Me,” she climbed up a large fallen tree trunk and sat on an elevated platform on the tree.
She also performed tracks such as “Normal Girl” and “Rich Baby Daddy,” her collaboration with Drake and Sexyy Red, before closing out her set with the throwback hit “20 Something,” also from “Ctrl.” She told the crowd, “Glasto, you want to do ’20 Something’ before we leave? This is for day ones and day ones only.”
Concluding her show, she said, “Glastonbury, I was so nervous to be here with you today. I’m so grateful, you have my deepest love and my deepest respect. I love you always, god bless you. Get home safely, my name is SZA, good night.”
Her headline set follows hot on the heels of Shania Twain’s “life-changing” gig in the Legends slot, when she performed from her back catalogue of hits including “That Don’t Impress Me Much” and “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” The 58-year-old took to the stage wearing a ruffled pink ensemble which she then took off, revealing a black mini-dress. She told the crowd, “I find moments like this very life-changing.”
Twain is also due to perform a headline set at Hyde Park’s British Summer Time (BST) festival on July 7 with special guests The Corrs. Following Twain’s set, fellow Canadian Avril Lavigne played her hits including “Sk8r Boi,” “Girlfriend,” and “Complicated” on the Other Stage, telling the crowd that she has always “loved” performing in the UK.
Nigerian singer Burna Boy also amped up festival-goers from the Pyramid Stage, by getting them to jump up and down and sing along to his Afrobeat hits. Earlier on Sunday, a barefoot Paloma Faith offered relationship advice to the Pyramid Stage audience, aimed at just the men. After leading the audience in a singalong of her track “Sweatpants,” from her latest album “The Glorification Of Sadness” – which deals with the end of a relationship, the 42-year-old British singer said she had been experimenting with dating apps.
But she called that form of finding love the “wild west” as people “don’t really know how to connect anymore.” Faith added, “Try and stay together, but it’s the resentment that’s the problem. So all I’m asking, this is a plea, I’m talking about (heterosexual) men, if you are married … and I just want you to notice that if a woman does the same action every single day, it means it needs doing, so don’t wait to ask to do it, just do it.”
Festival organiser Emily Eavis has confirmed 2026 will be a fallow year for Glastonbury to allow the land to rest and recover, but she is already in talks with acts to headline in 2025. 2024 was the first year to feature two female headliners on the Pyramid Stage, with Dua Lipa on Friday and SZA on Sunday. On Saturday night, Coldplay made history as the first act to headline the festival five times.
Dua Lipa feels fully “prepped” for her ‘Saturday Night Live’ appearance. The chart-topping pop star is set to appear as the host, and as a musical guest, on the long-running comedy show this weekend, and Dua has revealed that she feels nervous about “both” of her jobs, in spite of her precise preparation. Dua, 28, said on SiriusXM’s ‘The Morning Mash Up’: “It’s gonna be fun. I’m ready. I’m prepped.” The singer struggled with her nerves before her last appearance on ‘Saturday Night Live’. However, the London-born star has revealed that she’s received lots of support from the show’s production team.
Dua – who has just released her new album, ‘Radical Optimism’ – shared: “I was having this conversation with Bowen Yang who is also on ‘SNL’, and I was telling him about the last time when I performed on ‘SNL’ during the dress rehearsal. I was really, really nervous and we also, I was doing a skit with them and then after the dress rehearsal, we sit in a room and it’s the whole cast. Lorne [Michaels] comes in, and we’re talking about the skits, what’s good, what’s not, what we’re going to change, you know, and at that point, something just switched, and I felt like a real part of the team.”
Despite the outside pressures, Dua feels it’s still possible to have fun during the broadcast. The award-winning star said: “It’s just a whole show together, and so it’s about everything being seamless and fun. I guess that’s more of the crux of it rather than, ‘This has to be better than this part.’ I feel, for me, it all has to flow and be in harmony.”
Source: PA, BBC
