Dua Lipa at Glastonbury review: Friday night couldn’t have ended much better
In a dazzling set Dua showed the power of manifestation as well as just how much of a star she has become
It was entirely appropriate for Dua Lipa to ask the audience to chant ‘BLAST OFF!’ during ‘Levitating’ as that’s exactly what she did with her Glastonbury headline set on Friday (28 June), blasting off to another galaxy and back in spectacular fashion and taking us along for the ride.
In an energetic one hour 45-minute set, the 28-year-old once again proved that she is a modern day pop star through and through delivering on a promise to turn Glastonbury into a nightclub and also on her promise to herself to perform here in this slot.
There is little to find fault with in the setlist. Dua kicked things off with ‘Training Season’ from her latest album, Radical Optimism which debuted earlier this year to mixed reviews. Aside from the opener, Dua also performed ‘Illusion,’ ‘These Walls,’ ‘Falling Forever,’ ‘Happy For You,’ and of course, ‘Houdini’.
Most of the setlist was dedicated to Dua’s back catalogue with 2020’s Future Nostalgia getting a healthy representation as well as other iconic hits such as ‘Be the One,’ ‘One Kiss,’ and her 2021 collab with Elton John ‘Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)’. Knowing audiences at Glastonbury expect more than a regular show, Dua remixed many of her songs adding in new bass lines, interpolations, and using popular remixes of songs such as ‘Pretty Please’. We also got a tease of Barbie‘s ‘Dance the Night’ but nothing more. Dua knows her audience and gave them the set that they wanted and executed it magnificently.
“Dua showed the power of manifestation as well as just how much of a star she is”
When it came to guest stars, there weren’t many. The only one was with her Radical Optimism collaborator Kevin Parker of Tame Impala, who joined her for ‘The Lesser I Know the Better’. Many wondered whether Sir Elton would make an appearance, especially after his own headline set here last year, but sadly he did not. When it came to ‘Cold Heart’ Elton’s part was played out.
With about 20 minutes to go Dua bade us good night. This set the stage for a spectacular three-song encore. ‘Physical’ came first followed by ‘Don’t Start Now’ with the 2021 Grammy’s extended dance break before Dua got to her closer, ‘Houdini’. The first single from her third album, it went down sensationally with the crowd who bellowed in unison ‘Let’s go’ before the viral dance break from the 2024 Grammy’s performance.
Glastonbury’s Friday night couldn’t have ended much better. In a dazzling set filled with wall-to-wall bangers complete with choreo and accompanied by fireworks aplenty Dua, who last performed at Glastonbury in 2017 on a smaller stage, showed the power of manifestation as well as just how much of a star she has become. And she barely broke a sweat.