Pyramid stage
Her show may be situated in a fantastical world full of insects, swords and fallen trees, but the US singer’s lyrics are earthy and induce bedlam in her devoted fans
Towards the end of her set, SZA informs the audience that she was “so nervous to be here”. You can understand why. Of all the headlining artists at this year’s Glastonbury, the announcement of SZA seemed to cause the most consternation. It wasn’t the kind of dreary what-about-indie-rock complaining that used to attend the unveiling of any hip-hop or R&B headliner, more that if social media was to be believed, a significant proportion of Glastonbury-goers had simply never heard of her.
That probably says more about the atomised nature of algorithm-catered pop culture in 2024 – a world in which it’s far easier to stay in your particular musical bubble than it once was – than it does about SZA’s popularity. Her last album SOS wasn’t just a critical success, it sold 3m copies in the US and became the longest-running No 1 album by a female artist in the 2020s: in the UK, her last tour packed out a succession of arenas, including two nights at the O2. But as anyone who was at those London shows could attest, it was largely packed out with screaming, devoted teenage girls, who aren’t Glastonbury’s main demographic. Indeed, you could interpret her appearance as Glastonbury playing a long game, sending out a signal to a new generation of potential festival-goers that they feature the kind of artists they want to see.