FEATURE:
The Digital Mixtape
The Glastonbury 2024 Playlist
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EARLIER this week…
IN THIS PHOTO: Dua Lipa
music fans got a treat with the release of the Glastonbury line-up. There are still names and more details to come, though we got an array of wonderful names. This year, unlike any other, features two female headliners. Dua Lipa and SZA are confirmed. Shania Twain will also play the legends slot. It is a year when there is gender parity and that all-important recognition of women as headliners. Let’s hope that this is a sign of things to come! I am going to come to a playlist featuring songs from artists announced so far. It is an eclectic and fabulous line-up. Here, The Guardian discuss this year’s line-up:
“Dua Lipa, Coldplay and SZA will headline Glastonbury 2024, a diverse spread of A-list artists matched by a strong supporting lineup across the 26-30 June festival including Little Simz, LCD Soundsystem and Burna Boy, plus Shania Twain in the always-jubilant “legend” slot.
Much loved by Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis who once said they can “call in and do the milking any time” on his Worthy Farm site, Coldplay continue their longstanding relationship with the festival, becoming the first act to headline the Pyramid stage five times. They launched themselves into pop-rock’s big leagues with their first headline performance in 2002 when they had only released one album, and have since headlined in 2005, 2011 and 2016, as well as doing a livestreamed performance to an empty Pyramid stage field in lieu of a 2021 festival cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Coldplay’s 2024 performance is a European festival exclusive, and continues their Music of the Spheres world tour which began in March 2022 – already the third-highest grossing tour of all time behind Taylor Swift and Elton John.
Dua Lipa’s billing comes a day after the announcement of her third album Radical Optimism, which is off to a strong start with the singles Houdini and Training Season becoming global hits. She has said it was inspired by “the idea of going through chaos gracefully and feeling like you can weather any storm” – perhaps including Glastonbury’s unpredictable weather – and informed by “the music history of psychedelia, trip hop, and Britpop”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Coldplay
She first played Glastonbury in 2016, then in 2017 delivered a star-making set on the John Peel stage (now Woodsies) which saw audiences spilling out of the sides of the tent in the rain. The booking is a rare dance-pop Pyramid headliner, but continues Glastonbury’s broader championing of pop in recent years with the likes of Beyoncé, Adele, Billie Eilish and Elton John.
Versatile R&B singer SZA plays Glastonbury for the first time, and her elevation straight to Pyramid headliner status is the latest rung of a remarkable rise. Songs from her 2022 album SOS – an instant R&B classic that charts relationship strife with remarkable detail and depth of feeling – won three Grammys and she was also nominated for song, record, and album of the year; SOS reached No 1 in the US and No 2 in the UK.
Brightening up Sunday teatime will be Shania Twain, playing the “legend” slot occupied in recent years by the likes of Diana Ross, Kylie Minogue and fellow country music hero Dolly Parton. A recent UK arena tour by Twain was much acclaimed, with the Guardian heralding “two full hours stacked with hits, zany cowboys and aliens staging, and towering self-confidence”, and with nine UK Top 10 hits including That Don’t Impress Me Much and Man! I Feel Like a Woman, Twain has the requisite crowdpleasers for one of Glastonbury’s most beloved slots. Speaking on Radio 2, Twain said the booking “feels like an accolade of sorts, really something that you have to earn – it’s just very rewarding”.
IN THIS PHOTO: SZA/PHOTO CREDIT: Johnny Nunez/Getty Images
Other Pyramid performers include Little Simz in a plum spot preceding Coldplay, plus LCD Soundsystem, Burna Boy, PJ Harvey, Cyndi Lauper, Janelle Monáe and Michael Kiwanuka. Thirteen-member boyband Seventeen become the first K-pop band to perform on the Pyramid stage.
On the second-biggest Other stage, Idles follow the chart-topping success of recent album Tangk with a headline slot, joined by Disclosure and the National. UK rap is represented by D-Block Europe – who recently played four nights at London’s O2 Arena – plus Headie One and the Streets; bands include the Last Dinner Party and Two Door Cinema Club; and there’s a broad spread of pop encompassed by Camila Cabello, Anne-Marie and Avril Lavigne.
Recent winners of the Brit award for best group, Jungle, headline West Holts with Justice and Jessie Ware taking the other slots, while James Blake, Gossip and Jamie xx headline Woodsies. Up the hill on the Park stage, Fontaines DC, Peggy Gou and London Grammar headline, with Glastonbury stalwarts Orbital preceding the latter.
It ends months of speculation about the lineup, which has been announced later than usual, with no places for the rumoured likes of Madonna and Bruce Springsteen. The rumour mill will now turn to the fabled unannounced secret sets, with notable holes in the touring schedules of Glastonbury faves such as the Killers and Kings of Leon.
2024’s festival is the first time in Glastonbury history that two of the three top headliners are female artists, and a turnaround from last year’s all-male trio of Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses and Elton John. That booking was criticised in some quarters, though organiser Emily Eavis defended it as a “pipeline problem” across the music industry and said she was dedicated to diversity – close to half of the overall initial lineup announcement featured female acts”.
From 26th to 30th June, one of the world’s most important music festivals will feature a wonderful mix of young artists and legends. Spanning multiple genres, it is a relief that we have female headliners. Two in fact. We all hope that festivals lime Glastonbury will not waiver and women will be booked as headliners every year going forward. Terrific line-up that should please all music fans, you can hear songs from each of them…
IN THIS PHOTO: Shania Twain/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
IN the playlist below.