The hottest ticket at this year’s Glastonbury is a sweaty grocery party presided over by pop’s leading scientist. Charli Cover image for Brat, with a new album just out and this is the sound of the summer for anyone with a vaping habit and a history of self-loathing.
Dressed in a puffer jacket and cream-colored overalls, hidden behind dark, blinding sunglasses, she twirls through her DJ set. Bratmodern dance-pop and club classics like CeCe Peniston’s “Finally.” Robyn makes an appearance. So does Shygirl. There’s lasers, screams, keys, nonsense. Charli greets the girls, the party girls, the girl girls. Everyone knows they’re in front of a superstar here.
Anecdotally at least, there are few things at the festival on Friday that sparkle with such top-notch dynamism. You’re either on Charli or you’re a failure. Can’t get past the hastily erected barricades surrounding the Levels? You didn’t try hard enough. In fairness to Glastonbury, few could have predicted the pop explosion Charli would unleash just weeks before the festival kicked off. Far fewer could have predicted that Friday’s Pyramid Stage headliner Dua Lipa would deliver an extraordinary performance in a year dominated by bright, personal and assertive pop. It’s not exactly anyone’s fault, but it speaks to Glastonbury, which has gotten the genre a bit wrong this year.
Glastonbury’s relationship with pop music, and particularly the purest, maximalist genre of pop largely loved by and for girls and gays, is rarely discussed when it comes to the festival’s evolution over time. Historically, pop artists here have felt so culturally and creatively important that their artistry is indisputable (think Kylie Minogue in 2019 or “Run the World (Girls)”-era Beyoncé in 2011). Or from the Sugababes in 2003 and their overcrowded Friday sets this year to Rita Ora in 2013, they come across with an undeniable and sometimes mysterious cool – being British helps, too.
That’s generally been the festival’s approach, and it’s generally gone very well. When you look at the pop acts who’ve played here over the last 25 years, only Katy Perry seems like a slightly left-field choice in 2017 – yes, she’s incredibly commercial, but there’s something in her catalogue that feels significantly more like a Radio 1 Big Weekend than Worthy Farm, isn’t it?
So why is the pop concert at Glastonbury this year so strange? Judging by the sea of people eager to get into the Levels at midnight on Friday, Charli is one of the biggest names here, her small set oozing elite chic. Building on previous DJ sets at venues such as New York, Mexico and London’s Dalston Superstore, Brat version defined by its wild privileges and celebrity guests. But it took more stage time to establish her as Britain’s most innovative and important modern pop star.
The mistake feels especially egregious when Camila Cabello nabs the prime time Other Stage slot. The singer, who rose to fame with US girl group Little Mix’s Fifth Harmony, has recently rebranded as Charli’s evil twin: an institutionalized collection of scruffy party girl aesthetics that feels like an uncomfortable and sometimes embarrassing leather dress. Cabello’s new material doesn’t owe as much to Charli as many assume; C, XOXO, rThe album, released Friday, features crossovers between hip-hop, hyper-pop, ballads and poorly timed Drake collaborations; but given the blandly commercial pop music that defined his early fame, it seems odd that he’d been given such a big platform here.
Pop’s bridesmaids are also missing from this year’s Glastonbury. Where is Chappell Roan? Few contemporary American artists feel more built in a laboratory than a spot for Glastonbury, a magnificently flamboyant queer pop dramatist who has exploded in the last six months thanks to the simultaneous launch of a handful of hits, sometimes years old, into the stratosphere. Arguments could easily be made that Sabrina Carpenter should also earn a spot here this year – her sassy, toned-down and thoroughly enjoyable style of boppery has been one of this summer’s dominant voices.
There’s at least one place for Rachel Chinouriri, one of the most exciting young British pop stars working right now, but it would have been nice to have been given more space for her than the Sunday lunch Other Stage slot. After all, there’s clearly a big audience for pop here, as evidenced by crowds turning away from Sugababes and relatively sparse gatherings for many at the Pyramid Stage on Friday – with the pent-up frenzy of those watching the “Push the Button” hitmakers PJ on the main stage an hour later The gulf in the silent reception to Harvey was surprising.
Of course, the biggest elephant in the room is that Lipa, who should be this year’s must-see headliner, is at Glastonbury in the middle of a creative lull, alongside the reliable if unexciting Coldplay and SZA, who unfortunately has a better record. . Radical Optimism, The album, released in May, was an overly anonymous summer collection that struggled to align with the “psychedelic pop” sounds Lipa had hinted at in pre-release interviews, and revealed some of the artist’s artistic limitations: great vibes but limited personality; steam in an age calling for something solid.
Friday’s headline set was very, very good by all accounts, but dominated by old hits, suggesting an artist who knows what captures the zeitgeist and what doesn’t. In his review, he said: IndependentJazz Monroe, her set Radical Optimism the cuts felt like “boring, almost defensive insertions” compared to undeniable classics like “Physical” and “Don’t Start Now”.
Charli, meanwhile, was in full swing on Friday night – a big, attention-grabbing, titillating prospect. Some of the biggest tracks Brat was not played. Was I bummed we didn’t get the Lorde remix of “Girl, So Confusing,” the best song of 2024 so far, a completely infectious blur of everyday melancholy and fuck-you party synths? Of course! But that wasn’t the vibe: Her set was all about chaos, noise, and body heat, and the sheer, in-the-moment thrill of being a perfect train wreck and then worrying about the consequences later.
“I want you to be bad,” Charli pleads at one point, emphasizing the last word with an L.A.-style British accent. “I want you to be bitchy. I want you to be cute.
This was a set that showed the power of pop music in the hands of a genius. I hope next year Glastonbury shows the genre the respect it deserves. And the right scenes.