Dua Lipa hits all the right notes at Glastonbury

Dua Lipa didn’t come to fiddle.

The pop star stormed by her first ever headline slot at Glastonbury with an formidable and dynamic efficiency that was stacked with smashes from starting to finish.

She took to the Pyramid Stage shortly after 10pm, opening with a flawless run of 5 songs: Coaching Season, One Kiss, Phantasm, Break My Coronary heart and Levitating.

Every one had the breathless choreography of an award present efficiency – and the tempo didn’t let up all evening.

She performed 15 prime 40 hits, together with Don’t Begin Now, Bodily and New Guidelines, in addition to her collaborations with Elton John (Chilly Coronary heart) and Mark Ronson (Electrical energy).

Unusually, nonetheless, she selected to not play her Barbie smash Dance The Evening, which was consigned to a video interlude throughout one of many star’s 5 costume modifications.

Her raspy mezzo-soprano lower cleanly by the nice and cozy Somerset air, notably on the dramatic ballad Glad For You, and the purring, sensuous Houdini, which closed her set.

The 28-year-old even paid tribute to Shakespear’s Sister, one in every of Glastonbury’s first ever feminine headliners in 1992, sporting a t-shirt bearing the duvet of their album Hormonally Yours.

On stage, she repeatedly talked about how she had manifested this very second, having dreamt of headlining Glastonbury earlier than she even recorded her first album.

“I’ve written this second down and wished for it and dreamt it and labored so laborious,” she instructed the gang.

She recalled one in every of her first gigs, enjoying to 10 individuals who “solely got here as a result of we provided them free drinks” – and appeared overwhelmed by how a lot that viewers had grown.

Nearly 100,000 folks watched her play, with followers stretching all the way in which again to Rowmead, an space that was once reserved for campers, however which has been opened up in 2024 to permit larger crowds to the Pyramid Stage.

“It’s loads, innit? Loads to absorb,” Lipa stated.

“Little me would simply be beside herself proper now.”

It was a tiny second of vulnerability in an armour-plated set. No track was left unpolished, no vocal left unharmonised, no hair left untossed. Dua hit each mark with the precision of somebody who’d been constructing in direction of this second for years.

But when that makes it sound medical and sterile, it wasn’t the case.

Take the second she ran all the way down to the boundaries to hitch the gang as they sang alongside to her early hit Be The One.

It wasn’t fully spontaneous (actually it riffed on a second from her final Glastonbury efficiency in 2017) however the pleasure on the star’s face as she climbed the fences and stood head to head along with her followers was real.

Shortly afterwards, she introduced out Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker – a collaborator on her new album Radical Optimism – to sing the band’s track The Much less I Know The Higher.

Free of the iron grip of choreography, she merely vibed out with him on stage, giving a glimpse of the particular person behind the tightly-controlled public persona.

“Tonight I get to fake I am in Tame Impala,” she beamed.

If there was a criticism of her set, it was that such moments have been few and much between.

The present typically felt aimed on the world TV viewers as a lot because the folks in entrance of her, and the cardio dance routines – whereas undoubtedly spectacular – didn’t permit for a lot spontaneity.

However the viewers’s consideration by no means wavered. Even the much less acquainted new materials was cleverly sequenced, so that you just have been by no means greater than 3 minutes away from a licensed banger.

Earlier than the present, Lipa stated her objective was to flip Glastonbury “right into a nightclub” and he or she saved to her phrase.

All of the songs got a sonic overhaul – including sounds from the 90s rave scene or beefing up her beats with trunk-rumbling sub bass.

Her breakout hit, New Guidelines, was even mixed with the pageant staple Glue, by Northern Irish dance act Bicep.

The end result was a present that felt just like the VIP room of a gritty European nightspot, solely delivered on a huge scale.

Even the outfits have been deliberate to enhance the membership theme, with Dua’s vogue decisions mixing in with (fairly than standing out from) these of her dancers – from a chunky studded belt, to red-and-black flamed hotpants.

Notably, she additionally wore flat sneakers to facilitate the dancing – enhancing the sensation that we have been becoming a member of her on an evening out, fairly than watching an untouchable pop icon.

With fireworks and confetti all through the set, it felt like she was staking a declare on Glastonbury immortality. And, watching from the entrance row, she greater than succeeded.

This different acts on the prime of this weekend’s invoice – together with five-time headliners Coldplay – have their work lower out to match her ambition.

1. Coaching Season
2. One Kiss
3. Phantasm
4. Break My Coronary heart
5. Phantasm
6. These Partitions
7. Be The One
8. The Much less I Know The Higher (Tame Impala cowl)
9. Be The One
10. Falling Ceaselessly
11. Love Once more
12. Fairly Please
13. Hallucinate
14. New Guidelines
15. Electrical energy
16. Chilly Coronary heart
17. Glad For You
18. Bodily
19. Don’t Begin Now
20. Houdini

Different units on Saturday got here from dance collective Jungle, rock band Idles and Jamie xx – who packed out the Woodsies tent, and rewarded followers by reuniting together with his bandmates Romy and Oliver from The xx for an emotional efficiency of You’ve got Acquired The Love.

He was additionally joined on stage by Swedish pop star Robyn, enjoying their new collaboration Life.

Shock visitors have been the order of the evening, actually.

Anne-Marie launched Aitch to The Different Stage to carry out Psycho, and Bombay Bicycle Membership have been joined by Damon Albarn to play Blur’s Tender and Heaven – which featured on Bombay Bicycle Membership’s 2023 album My Large Day.

Albarn additionally urged folks to vote in subsequent week’s basic election, and appeared to criticise Thursday evening’s debate between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, saying: “Possibly it’s time we stopped placing octogenarians answerable for the world.”

Dance star Fred Once more popped up within the Stonebridge Bar, inflicting chaos as 1000’s of followers tried to cram into one of many pageant’s smallest venues.

There have been equally chaotic scenes on the West Holts stage earlier within the night, as Sugababes introduced the sector to a standstill.

Organisers needed to enact a one-in, one-out coverage – harking back to the band’s final efficiency, which shut down the Avalon Subject in 2022.

Elsewhere, Irish band Fontaines DC delivered a bleakly lovely headline set on The Park Stage.

“Do you wanna go on vacation?” requested frontman Grian Chatten, prowling the stage in a skirt as he performed hits like Boys within the Higher Land and Rolling Stone journal’s single of the 12 months, Starburster.

Maybe it was much less visceral than the band’s final look at Glastonbury two years in the past, however the pay-off was a extra polished sound and a richer vocal efficiency from Chatten.

Previous Dua Lipa on the Pyramid Stage have been indie disco punks LCD Soundsystem, who have been a surprisingly good pairing for the sundown.

The New Yorkers leaned into their extra emotional materials – House, I Can Change, Somebody Nice – earlier than closing with a euphoric All My Pals.

Die-hard followers on the entrance of the viewers have been whisked again 20 years to the band’s heyday, whereas youthful afficianados have been merely awed by their longevity.

“Think about what number of events they’ve been to,” stated one subsequent to me. “Think about what number of medicine they’ve taken.”

“Unbelievable.”