Female artists may have won Glastonbury but we still have a long way to go for real equality in music
The legend set at Glastonbury, which always traditionally takes place late Sunday afternoon and prime for those festival feels on the last day of the iconic music festival, always draws in a crowd. But no one pulled in a crowd quite like Kylie Minogue at Glastonbury 2019.
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Over 100,000 thousand people packed into the Pyramid stage field to Step Back in Time with the Australian legend and – amongst all the sprinklings of camp, witness a tearful speech from the 51-year-old. Kylie was meant to headline the festival in 2005 before she was forced to pull out due to being diagnosed with cancer and the star opened up about the challenging circumstances. With barely enough room to dance, there were hardly any dry eyes in the field.
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But whilst this was a great personal moment for Kylie, the significance of the record-breaking crowd was a greater moment for women – especially women in music. This is, after all, a woman in her 50s who in an industry riddled by sexism, has had a 30-year long career thanks to her unique take on pop music.
The festival had three all-male headliners this year with Stormzy, The Killers and The Cure taking top billing. At a festival where only two women have headlined since 2007, Adele and Beyoncé, it failed to reach the 50/50 quota, with only 42 percent of the acts being women.
Speaking to the BBC just before Glastonbury, the organiser, Emily Eavis, addressed the bias. “Im ashamed to say that, within our organisation, theres men who book stages, and quite a few of them are old men and they dont understand why Im pushing all the time. One of them presented their line-up this year and I was like, Im really sorry but youre just going to have to take some of the blokes off. Theres no women. And they were like, Oh for Gods sake, youve lost your mind.”
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However, like Kylie Minogue, the female artists shouted the loudest – glitter cannons and all. Following the pop icon onto the stage was an icon in the making, Miley Cyrus. Belting out her hits including, Party in The USA and Wrecking Ball, it was all too clear the singer was leaving everything on the stage. There was even a nod to another legend, Dolly Parton, as the singer covered Jolene. But why wasnt the star headlining the show? After that performance, Miley certainly put a case forward for doing so.
However, when it came to empowerment, Lizzo took the crown. Wearing a sequin one-piece, the
