How to bring Charli xcx’s one-woman show – a triumph of emotive pop hedonism and discomfiting intimacy – to a sprawling, city-sized Worthy Farm? It was never going to be an easy task.
Yet there have been few sets at this year’s Glastonbury Festival more anticipated than Charli’s Saturday night Other Stage headline slot. The slime-green tinge of Brat Summer has remained bright and potent in all corners of pop culture since the 32-year-old released her sixth studio album last summer, elevating her from cult starlet to five BRIT wins and sold-out arenas on both sides of the Atlantic – an impossibly huge feat, given how idiosyncratic and debauched her vision of pop is.
Saturday’s billing is even more impressive when you remember that, only three years ago, the Essex-raised singer seemed disillusioned with her career; ill-at-ease with the major label system machine and stung by mixed opinions on 2022’s slick (and safe) Crash – a record she has since admitted that she is unable to listen to in full. She continued to climb to her feet after being knocked down, however; she now possesses the powerful air of a victorious underdog.
More than 60,000 fans showed up in their sequined droves to this milestone-making moment for Charli, with Glastonbury organizers having upped capacity at the Other Stage this year to avoid overcrowding. Wearing a black leather two-piece and an Alexander McQueen scarf, the set immediately plunged into the club-focused physicality of Brat, with an overdubbing of bass resulting in a genuinely thrilling racket – as visceral and propulsive as a warehouse rave.
With no special guest appearances (Lorde, where art thou?), Charli performed this confidently minimalist show entirely solo, with a set consisting merely of a series of alternating white stage lights. But the power of this blank production canvas is that it lets audience members project their own lives and stories onto the music.
Here are the five best moments from Charli’s Other Stage headline slot.
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Real 365 Party Girl
In the style of Brat and its carefree spirit, Charli’s live show is both ramshackle and intensely thought-out at the same time; sometimes, she pretends to forget the words to her own songs, even as she’s marching across the stage in perfect synchronicity with the music. Her black sunglasses stayed permanently affixed to her face, meanwhile, as she commanded Glastonbury to “get the f— up” throughout a raucous “365.”
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POV: It’s Saturday Night at Glastonbury
When onstage videographer Aidan Zamiri panned out to the crowd during “Von Dutch,” the audience lifted up their phones, creating a sea of lights that stretched as far back as the eye could see. He continued to follow Charli around the stage, always keeping the thousands of revelers behind her in view. This simple, effective setup felt like a stark contrast to the absolute maximalism of The 1975’s headline set on the Pyramid Stage the night prior.
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Beep Beep
After “I Might Say Something Stupid,” Charli blitzed through the rest of her set almost as quickly as the car chase she sings about on “Speed Drive.” She walked around with a pint of white wine to hand, rarely pausing to chat bar a brief acknowledgement of the crowd’s support. “I am known to have a heart of stone,” she said. “But this moment means so much to me. Thank you, Glastonbury.” -
Cue the Cameras, it’s Gracie Abrams!
Part of the fun of the Brat tour is the guessing game that accompanies the TikTok-famous “Apple” dance, for which Charli selects one new lucky audience member each night. In recent months, everyone from Amelia Dimoldenberg to Chappell Roan and Clairo have stepped up to the spotlight, but it was Gracie Abrams’ time to shine at Glastonbury, delivering the routine with fierce precision while dressed in a baby-pink cardigan.
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Brat Summer is Eternal
At the start of a pulsating “Von Dutch,” only three songs in, pockets of Charli’s Brat backdrop burst into flames. As her current world tour has progressed, the artwork has continued to deteriorate – or “rotting right to the core,” you could say. You could take the corroded backdrop as a sign of how she’s slowly leaving her zeitgeist-defining album behind, but Charli’s closing message told us otherwise: “Brat is forever,” read two supersized LED signs, before fireworks shot dazzlingly into the night.
