Dua Lipa at Glastonbury: review – headliners are rarely this catchy and hedonistic | Glastonbury 2024

According to the most intriguing part of her between-song conversation, Dua Lipa’s Glastonbury headline slot came about as a result of a childhood act of protest. The singer claims she wrote down in detail her desire to headline the Pyramid Stage, right down to the night it was supposed to take place: a Friday, so she “could spend the rest of the weekend partying.” And now here we are: watching a rather peculiar video of Dua Lipa signing her name and writing the words “GLASTO 24” on a window, then licking it.

Whether you believe in showing up or not, Dua Lipa has clearly spent a lot of time carefully studying and absorbing the workings of a successful Glastonbury gig, and putting what she’s learned to good use. The announcement of her presence has caused some consternation, particularly after her latest album, Radical Optimism, failed to replicate the kind of global success delivered by its predecessor, the lockdown smash Future Nostalgia. But she’s already got a stockpile of must-see hits, from New Rules to her Elton John collaboration Cold Heart, which is half the battle won. Plus, she’s putting everything she’s got into her show to make it feel like an event, rather than just another pop show transposed to a Somerset field, another stop on a world tour set on a farm.

There are confetti cannons galore. There are pyrotechnics – so many during the levitation that you wonder what they could possibly do for the finale, though they barely manage to top it. There is a pleasing reference to the festival’s hedonism, but not from the singer herself, who largely confines herself to asking the audience how they are feeling: she strides on stage to Peter Fonda’s famous video from the 1966 biker film The Wild Angels, informing the crowd that he wants to load up and have a good time. And there is an equally enjoyable appearance from Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker – his jeans and T-shirt at odds with the main attraction’s constant costume changes; a moment where both men puff up their voices and laugh at odds with the tightly choreographed mood of the show – performing not one of his collaborations with Dua Lipa but his own biggest hit, The Less I Know the Better: 1.6 billion streams and counting.

Hallucinate makes some of Lipa’s more recent efforts look a little pale in comparison. Fueled by house and loaded with exciting hooks, it may well be one of the best pop singles in recent memory—which is not a claim anyone is going to make on behalf of the serviceable but unexceptional Houdini or Training Season. There are a few less impressive songs from Radical Optimism thrown into the mix: the pass-aggy Happy for You; the acoustic-guitar-driven These Walls.

The latter track was the only one on the album, vaguely suggesting the Britpop influence she spent a lot of time talking about before its release, but listening to it tonight, it sounds more like other tracks that sold by millions in the 90s. It’s not a stretch to imagine it being sung by Texas, Natalie Imbruglia or even the Corrs. But the set places these songs in the middle of the hits so successfully that we barely notice them. There’s always another cast iron hit on the way: Levitating, Physical, Illusion.

“It’s a lot, isn’t it,” she gasps at one point, surveying the vast expanse of a huge crowd that, incidentally, remains in place: there’s none of the waste that signals a Glastonbury headliner getting his audience wrong and leading him to the other side of the festival’s many delights. It’s an unmitigated success.