Beyoncé Headlines The Glastonbury Festival 2011

For the first time in its 20 year history, a female performer headlined The Glastonbury Festival this year … and that woman was Beyoncé. Closing out the final night of the 3 day music festival, Beyoncé performed a set of her hit songs, a few select cover songs and a couple of her new songs in front of tens of thousands of people on the main Pyramid Stage. Without question … Beyoncé KILLED her performance! She was a woman in charge … she was the Queen of Glastonbury. Click below to see some photos, read some deets and watch some video of Beyoncé‘s headlining performance at Glastonbury 2011.

The hoped-for duet with Jay-Z might not have happened – but Beyoncé blew most of the doubters out of the water last night with her Bootylicious performance to close the Glastonbury Festival. The star was watched by her rapper husband and friend Gwyneth Paltrow as well as 170,000 people on Worthy Farm in Somerset as she tore through an impressive hour-and-a-half set. Wearing just black hotpants and a gold belted jacket with her hair blowing curly and free in the evening breeze, she appeared at times overcome with emotion at the reception she was given. And even though she’s more used to playing to fans in slick arena shows rather than to thousands of festival goers stuck in the mud, she appeared to totally win over the crowd. Playing a greatest hits set of mostly her own and Destiny’s Child tunes, she also covered tracks including Etta James’s At Last, Kings Of Leon’s Sex On Fire and Alanis Morrisette’s You Oughta Know … she also duetted with Tricky for song Baby Boy … she kept fans happy, kicked off with a firework-punctuated Crazy In Love. She seemed thrilled to be there, declaring: ‘You are witnessing my dream! Thank you for having me and my band tonight, I always wanted to be a rock star and tonight we are all rock stars.’ She also included tracks including Single Ladies – which of course she did the dance to, in her sparkly black high heeled ankle boots – If I Were A Boy, Independent Women, Bootylicious and Survivor as well as new single Who Run The World (Girls) before closing with an anthemic Halo. At the end of her ground-breaking set, she declared: ‘Can I just say “I love you” to Coldplay and U2, and thanks again for this beautiful night, I will never forget it. I love you all!’ She then disappeared into a glowing pyramid at the back of the set – literally built because it was on the Pyramid Stage. The star – the first female to headline the festival in more than 20 years – was playing with an all-female band including a horn section with some male backing dancers to even things up a bit.

Bey gave nothing short of an epic performance, truly. She worked that stage like the pro that she is, proving that she absolutely deserved her headline spot on the Glasto bill. I am really happy that her husband Jay-Z did not jump on stage to perform with her … it was HER night, she needed absolutely no one to validate her performance. Here are some video clips of Beyoncé‘s Glasonbury performance last night. Watch them while you can, the Glastonbury clips have been disappearing from You Tube in the past few hours.

Crazy In Love:

Independent Woman (Part 1), Bootylicious, Bug A Boo and Telephone Medley:


Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It):


I was fortunate to see Beyoncé perform close up at the Staples Center here in LA and I can tell you, the woman is the hardest working performer in pop music today. Talent like hers deserves to be on a big stage like this. Glastonbury was lucky to have her. They may not allow female acts to headline very often but when they do, they pick the right ones. Well done, Beyoncé!

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