Dua Lipa Glastonbury review: Star manifested dream moment with hit-packed set

Dua Lipa didn’t come to fiddle.

The pop star stormed by means of her first ever headline slot at Glastonbury with an bold 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).

Surprisingly, 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 adjustments.

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

The 28-year-old even paid tribute to Shakespear’s Sister, one in all Glastonbury’s first ever feminine headliners in 1992, sporting a t-shirt bearing the quilt 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 onerous,” she instructed the gang.

She recalled one in all 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 individuals watched her play, with followers stretching all the best way 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 rather a lot, innit? Rather a lot to soak up,” Lipa mentioned.

“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 right down to the obstacles to affix the gang as they sang alongside to her early hit Be The One.

It wasn’t solely spontaneous (in reality 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 nose to nose 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 faux I am in Tame Impala,” she beamed.

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

The present typically felt aimed on the international TV viewers as a lot because the individuals in entrance of her, and the cardio dance routines – whereas undoubtedly spectacular – didn’t enable 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 had been by no means greater than 3 minutes away from a licensed banger.

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 had been deliberate to enhance the membership theme, with Dua’s style selections mixing in with (slightly than standing out from) these of her dancers – from a chunky studded belt, to red-and-black flamed hotpants.

Notably, she additionally wore flat footwear to facilitate the dancing – enhancing the sensation that we had been becoming a member of her on an evening out, slightly 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.

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

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

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

Shock friends had been the order of the evening, in reality.

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

Dance star Fred Once more popped up within the Stonebridge Bar, inflicting chaos as hundreds 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 sphere 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 stunning 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 had been indie disco punks LCD Soundsystem, who had been a surprisingly good pairing for the sundown.

The New Yorkers leaned into their extra emotional materials – Residence, I Can Change, Somebody Nice – earlier than closing with a euphoric All My Associates, watched from the aspect of the stage by Dave Grohl and Noel Gallagher.

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

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