Olivia Rodrigo welcomed The Cure frontman Robert Smith onto the Pyramid Stage as she wrapped up a politically charged Glastonbury Festival on Sunday night.
The “deja vu” singer obliged with all of the fan favorites from her last two albums, Sour and Guts, including “good 4 u,” “jealousy, jealousy” and “traitor.”
“Holy fucking shit,” the U.S. star said from the fest’s iconic main stage, where thousands stood to see her perform. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people in my life.”
She brought out Smith — “the greatest songwriter to come out of England” — nearly midway into the set. The pair played “Friday I’m in Love” and “Just Like Heaven” together.
A sweet moment occurred when Rodrigo dedicated the tune “so american” to Brit boyfriend and actor Louis Partridge, who was watching from backstage. “I fucking love England,” she began. “I love the culture. I love how nobody judges you for having a pint at noon. I love English sweets — I’ve had three sticky toffee puddings since I arrived.”
“I also really love English boys,” she continued. “I wrote this next song when I was falling in love with this boy from London and as we were getting to know each other, we were discovering all of these cross-cultural differences. I would make fun of him for eating a jacket potato with beans inside of it. He would make fun of me for pronouncing things very American — like Glaston-berry — so I took all of our little inside jokes and I made a song on that.”
The annual event, which kicked off Wednesday with a 250,000-plus-person attendance, is the crowning jewel of music festivals. Lorde made a surprise appearance on Friday as her new album Virgin was born, and Charli xcx thrilled Brat fans Saturday night. But this year, things often got political onstage.
Festival organizers released a statement Sunday after rap duo Bob Vylan chanted “death to the IDF” (the Israel Defense Forces) during their set on the West Holts stage on Saturday.
“Their chants very much crossed a line, and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech, or incitement to violence,” wrote Emily Eavis, daughter of Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis.
Elsewhere, Irish rap trio Kneecap also took to the stage to voice their pro-Palestine views and used the platform to criticize the U.K. and U.S. governments, as well as the U.S. media.
The band, the subjects of Rich Peppiatt’s print-the-legend biopic Kneecap, also thanked the Eavis family for allowing them to play despite pushback from U.K. politicians, including Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy. “A big thank you to the Eavis family,” they said. “The pressure that that family was under and they stood strong. Fair play to them.”
According to The 1975’s Matty Healy (the band was the first to headline Friday night), viewers watching the BBC’s live Glastonbury coverage at home might have been “disappointed” by the “lack of politics in this show.”
He said Friday: “I want you to know it’s a conscious decision. … We don’t want our legacy to be politics; we want our [message] to be love and friendship.” Shortly after, screens flanking the band as they played “Love It If We Made It” displayed, among others, clips of KKK rituals, Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein, the war in Gaza, Kanye West, police brutality in the U.S., 9/11 and London’s Grenfell Tower burning down.
