SZA provided the soundtrack to the final sunset of Glastonbury 2024 yesterday evening at the Pyramid stage. Performing to a significantly smaller crowd than the two previous headliners (Dua Lipa and Coldplay), many festival-goers packed up and left soon after Shania Twain’s legends slot mid-afternoon.
Emerging from the heavens on a podium to the gentle lull of PSA, the 34-year-old New Jersey singer’s syrupy tone was immediately recognisable. The stage itself looked something akin to an Eighties sci-fi film — the mouth of a cave, complete with giant insects and echoing water droplets.
Making up for reduced crowd numbers in the back, fans up front sang twice as loudly, sacrificing the very last of their voices for tracks Love Galore and Broken Clocks. The first big cheer of the evening was in reaction to All The Stars, and again with F2F, as fans chanted the lyrics ‘F*ck ‘em ‘cause I miss you’.
SZA’s Glastonbury headline slot follows two huge years for the singer, releasing her platinum-selling, Grammy-winning album SOS in 2022, and touring it in the years since.
As well as being the person responsible for one of the biggest R&B records of recent years, it’s easy to see how the star became a global sensation. With a slew of backing dancers and polished choreography from the jump — paired with faultless, unwavering vocals — no one could dispute that she didn’t give her all.
One thing she didn’t give us was a chat, with disappointingly little audience interaction. That said, she was the first headliner this weekend to wish us ‘Happy Pride!’ before segueing into Normal Girl. One particularly satisfying moment came mid-set during I Hate U, when thousands of people screamed the lyric ‘F*ck you!’ in unison. More popular hits followed (surprisingly early on), Snooze and of course her biggest hit of all, Kill Bill, for which she danced with swords in true Uma Thurman, Samurai-style.
The show came with three costume changes and moments of calm amid the stage-crawling choreo, where she perched on either an enlarged ant or tree branch. If it weren’t for the fairy wings she wore as part of outfit three, it could have easily been a scene from Honey, I Shrunk The Kids.
SZA’s music is notably romantic, sensual and sway-worthy. The more upbeat dance moments of the set came via Kiss Me More, which led into a cover of Prince classic Kiss, and Rich Baby Daddy, a TikTok-viral track that had the crowd doing exactly what the lyrics demanded: ‘Shake that ass for me!’
The closest she came to connecting with fans was during the last song, 20 Something, which she dedicated to her ‘day ones and day ones only’, climbing onto the barrier to embrace those in the front.
SZA put on a great show, but if she was the right choice to close Glastonbury is another matter. The missing piece was that one euphoric moment that you want from a headliner — particularly the final one — the thing that separates the performance from any other experience and places it at the greatest festival in the world, rather than simply an arena tour set.
And so, instead of a final high, SZA’s soothing, dulcet sound became an early lullaby. And as follows all good lullabies, now comes a very long sleep.
