Rocker, 65, Nearly Unrecognizable 36 Years After Making History at Glastonbury Music Festival
It's been 36 years since this musician headlined the Glastonbury Music Festival in Somerset, England.
Suzanne Vega, the singer with a very unique voice behind such hits as "Luka" and "Tom's Diner," has lately been reflecting on her first performance at the Glastonbury Music Festival — 36 years ago, she became the first female headliner for the music fest back in 1989.
It's a gig that almost didn't happen because Vega's bassist was receiving death threats from a stalker.
'But they had included me in the threats,' Vega told The i Paper. 'Scotland Yard sat me down and said, 'We advise you not to do the show.' I was like, 'Are you kidding me?''She went on to say how a man from Scotland Yard gave her his bulletproof vest, and she had to perform in that.
"A man from Scotland Yard took his and said, 'You'll have to wear this.' He was twice my size, so I had to gaffer tape myself into this giant bulletproof vest, and then put a denim jacket over it. It felt like every song was 20 minutes long. It was not comfortable. We were all nervous," said Vega, but she added, "I'm proud of being the first woman to headline. There's nothing diminished about that."
Vega is still making music three decades later. In fact, she just released her 10th studio album in May 2025 called Flying With Angels. She told Forbes in a May 2025 interview that half the songs on the record were a total surprise to her as she was going through the writing process.
"The trick was following them down the rabbit hole in spite of the fact that they were a surprise. I'd say half the album was like, 'Whoa, where are we going with this?' When I first conceived of the idea of 'Love Thief,' 'I am the love thief.' I was like, "OK, this is a totally different sound for me.' … So that was a surprise. The other surprise was 'Witch,' I didn't know what was going to happen with that song. That's sort of a prog rock song, which again, I couldn't have foreseen how we were going to go with that. It has a folky beginning and then what I think of as prog rock. It's sort of like my Pink Floyd moment."
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Rocker, 65, Nearly Unrecognizable 36 Years After Making History at Glastonbury Music Festival first appeared on Parade on Jun 27, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 27, 2025, where it first appeared.
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