Olivia Rodrigo’s first Glastonbury appearance in 2022 was the stuff of minor legend. Aged 19, already the author of an 18m selling debut album, but something of an unknown quantity in festival terms, she turned out to be rather more feral and off-message than you might have expected a former Disney Channel star turned teen-popper to be. At one juncture, she named each individual judge responsible for overturning Roe v Wade that weekend, shouting “We hate you! We hate you!” then performing Lily Allen’s Fuck You in duet with its author.
Three years on, with another huge-selling album in the bag, and lifted to the status of headliner, nothing quite so likely to stir up controversy on Fox News happens. But the singer is still capable of springing surprises, when she announces the arrival of a special guest – “perhaps the best songwriter to come out of England … a Glastonbury legend and a personal hero of mine”, you somehow automatically expect Ed Sheeran to appear from the wings, acoustic guitar in hand. But this does Rodrigo something of a disservice. It turns out to be Robert Smith, who duets with her on versions of Friday I’m In Love and Just Like Heaven.
