a day ago
Charli XCX, Glastonbury Festival, review: Underwhelming set that was more sizzle than sausage
Glasto-goers lucky enough to get into the Other Stage field to see Charli XCX headline (there were crowd issues because so many people wanted to be there) were treated to a banging 75 minutes of Gen Z-friendly techno-pop. Yet for all the noise and hype, this was a set that was more sizzle than sausage.
It was a huge 'event', Charli having released Brat, the most talked about album of the year, last summer. Brat was essentially a ravey celebration of messy rebellion. The album was so big that it launched its own season (Brat summer) and colour (bogey green). As the bass throbbed and the beats pulsated, Charli, whose real name is Charlotte Emma Aitchison, gyrated and crawled around on all fours in a black bikini and shades, wiggling her bum at the camera and, at one point, snogging her own arm.
There was fire and rain on stage, and strobes galore. Yet it was all a bit one-note. As is the way these days, she sang to a backing track (which seemed to include the singing part) and her voice was heavily autotuned. No one around me cared that she seemed to be miming some of the time. But any suggestions that she should be headlining the Pyramid Stage instead of Olivia Rodrigo on Sunday night were scotched. This didn't feel like a Pyramid headlining show.
After The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony warmed up the crowd, a curtain fell to reveal the green Brat logo, and Charli bounded on to 365. 'Party Girl' flashed on the screens. 'Fucking jump!' she screamed. And so we did. She did indeed bring the party, and the word-perfect crowd were certainly up for it.
Club Classics and Von Dutch were absolutely belting, and there was a moment of tenderness when she asked who in the audience 'is really in love tonight?' Then she said, 'Me too. I love you, George' in reference to her fiancé George Daniel, the drummer in Friday night's Pyramid headliner The 1975. Bless. It's quite a weekend they're having. I'd love to know where that joint aftershow party is.
Her song Apple has acquired its own viral TikTok dance (basically this century's Chicken Dance), and a tradition has emerged for cameras to zone in on celebrities doing the dance at gigs. Tonight it was Gracie Abrams, the singer who performed on the same stage earlier and is daughter of Star Wars director J.J. Abrams. The force definitely awakened.
There were no guests (speculation was rife that Billie Eilish might appear on Guess). It was just Charli, alone, on stage all show. You did wonder where she goes from here (except for Block 9), and whether – and how – the Brat zeitgeist can be maintained in summers to come.
