Easy methods to convey Charli xcx’s one-woman present – a triumph of emotive pop hedonism and discomfiting intimacy – to a sprawling, city-sized Worthy Farm? It was by no means going to be a straightforward job.
But there have been few units at this 12 months’s Glastonbury Festival extra anticipated than Charli’s Saturday evening Different Stage headline slot. The slime-green tinge of Brat Summer time has remained vibrant and potent in all corners of popular culture for the reason that 32-year-old launched her sixth studio album final summer time, elevating her from cult starlet to 5 BRIT wins and sold-out arenas on either side of the Atlantic – an impossibly large feat, given how idiosyncratic and debauched her imaginative and prescient of pop is.
Saturday’s billing is much more spectacular whenever you keep in mind that, solely three years in the past, the Essex-raised singer appeared disillusioned together with her profession; ill-at-ease with the main label system machine and stung by blended opinions on 2022’s slick (and secure) Crash – a record she has since admitted that she is unable to listen to in full. She continued to climb to her ft after being knocked down, nonetheless; she now possesses the highly effective air of a victorious underdog.
Greater than 60,000 followers confirmed up of their sequined droves to this milestone-making second for Charli, with Glastonbury organizers having upped capability on the Different Stage this 12 months to keep away from overcrowding. Sporting a black leather-based two-piece and an Alexander McQueen scarf, the set instantly plunged into the club-focused physicality of Brat, with an overdubbing of bass leading to a genuinely thrilling racket – as visceral and propulsive as a warehouse rave.
With no particular visitor appearances (Lorde, the place artwork thou?), Charli carried out this confidently minimalist present totally solo, with a set consisting merely of a sequence of alternating white stage lights. However the energy of this clean manufacturing canvas is that it lets viewers members venture their very own lives and tales onto the music.
Listed below are the 5 finest moments from Charli’s Different Stage headline slot.
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Actual 365 Get together Lady
Within the fashion of Brat and its carefree spirit, Charli’s reside present is each ramshackle and intensely thought-out on the similar time; generally, she pretends to overlook the phrases to her personal songs, at the same time as she’s marching throughout the stage in excellent synchronicity with the music. Her black sun shades stayed completely affixed to her face, in the meantime, as she commanded Glastonbury to “get the f— up” all through a raucous “365.”
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POV: It’s Saturday Evening at Glastonbury
When onstage videographer Aidan Zamiri panned out to the gang throughout “Von Dutch,” the viewers lifted up their telephones, making a sea of lights that stretched way back to the attention might see. He continued to observe Charli across the stage, at all times preserving the hundreds of revelers behind her in view. This straightforward, efficient setup felt like a stark distinction to absolutely the maximalism of The 1975’s headline set on the Pyramid Stage the evening prior.
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Beep Beep
After “I May Say One thing Silly,” Charli blitzed by means of the remainder of her set nearly as rapidly because the automotive chase she sings about on “Velocity Drive.” She walked round with a pint of white wine at hand, not often pausing to speak bar a short acknowledgement of the gang’s assist. “I’m identified to have a coronary heart of stone,” she stated. “However this second means a lot to me. Thanks, Glastonbury.” -
Cue the Cameras, it’s Gracie Abrams!
A part of the enjoyable of the Brat tour is the guessing recreation that accompanies the TikTok-famous “Apple” dance, for which Charli selects one new fortunate viewers member every evening. In current months, everybody from Amelia Dimoldenberg to Chappell Roan and Clairo have stepped as much as the highlight, but it surely was Gracie Abrams’ time to shine at Glastonbury, delivering the routine with fierce precision whereas wearing a baby-pink cardigan.
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Brat Summer time is Everlasting
At the beginning of a pulsating “Von Dutch,” solely three songs in, pockets of Charli’s Brat backdrop burst into flames. As her present world tour has progressed, the art work has continued to deteriorate – or “rotting right to the core,” you might say. You could possibly take the corroded backdrop as an indication of how she’s slowly leaving her zeitgeist-defining album behind, however Charli’s closing message advised us in any other case: “Brat is perpetually,” learn two supersized LED indicators, earlier than fireworks shot dazzlingly into the evening.