Paloma Faith thinks Glastonbury headliners will “go back to white men again for years” in the future
Paloma Faith has said that she expects the bookings of Glastonbury headliners to “go back to white men again” after this year’s line-up.
The festival has been criticised in the past for male-heavy line-ups and a lack of diversity in headliners, but this year Dua Lipa and SZA are headlining alongside Coldplay with Shania Twain in the legends slot.
Also on the line-up are the likes of Little Simz, PJ Harvey, Cyndi Lauper, Jessie Ware and Gossip. Faith herself will be performing on the Pyramid Stage on the Sunday afternoon before Twain.
“What tends to happen is they’ll diversify and include non-white races and women again, and everyone says, ‘Isn’t it great? We’re progressing’ – and then it goes back to white men again for years,” Faith told Radio Times. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
However, the singer said that she’ll be watching “as many women artists as I can” while at the festival. “I really want to support other women. Everyone they’ve got is amazing,” she added. “This industry tends to be a bit sexist and overlook women of my age.
“I felt that there was no way in hell that I would be acknowledged as a worthy person because I’m 42.”
The last female headliner at Glastonbury was Billie Eilish in 2022. Taylor Swift was set to headline in 2020 before the festival was cancelled due to COVID, while Florence + The Machine and Adele headlined in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
In 2019, Glastonbury co-organiser Emily Eavis said that she was aiming for “as close to” a 50/50 gender split as possible, but as recently as last year the festival came in for criticism over its headliners. Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses and Elton John headlined the festival, with Yusuf/Cat Stevens taking the legends slot.
She told The Guardian it was down to an industry “pipeline” problem, with Guns N’ Roses replacing an original female headliner who had to pull out after her touring plans changed.
She reiterated in October last year that she was still “really passionate about gender split”, and continued: “I’m always trying to make it the most balanced, diverse bill. It is difficult with female artists because there aren’t enough headliners. But we’re also creating them. We’re putting the bands and female artists on smaller stages and bringing them through all the time so I feel like the pool is going to be bigger soon.”
Earlier this month, Eavis said that her “dream” headliner would be Kate Bush. “I hope it will happen one day,” she said, “I mean, Elton was a pipe dream and it happened, so you never know.”
Meanwhile, Faith has just released a memoir, MILF. She first announced the book in March, explaining that its name stands for Motherhood, Identity, Love and Fuckery, and it was released on June 6.
Glastonbury Festival 2024 is set to take place from June 26-30. You can see the full line-up and stage times here, as well as the worst set clashes this year. Meanwhile, the early weather forecasts suggest that concertgoers could be in line for mixed conditions.
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Adam England
NME
