We’re less than a month away from Glastonbury 2025 tickets going on sale, so naturally the rumours about who will be headlining are heating up.
Next year will be the festival’s 55th birthday, having first opened at Worthy Farm in 1970, so the pressure is on to get a stellar lineup before taking a year off.
Rumoured headliners include the likes of Alanis Morissette, Sam Fender, Harry Styles, Eminem, and Madonna.
2024’s lineup saw Dua Lipa, Coldplay, and Sza take to the Pyramid Stage — to a mixed response — but it looks like this pop takeover will continue.
Top of the Glastonbury organisers’ wishlist this year is reportedly US pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo, 21.
The Sun has claimed she is set to headline, as she returns to the UK for her rescheduled Co-op Live Arena, Manchester, dates just days before the festival.
‘Organisers are keen to get more high-profile female performers topping the bill after being criticised in the past for it being a male-heavy event,’ an insider shared.
Olivia previously took to the Other Stage in 2022, bringing out Lily Allen during her set in an iconic move that sent fans wild.
The ratio of male to female headliners has long been a criticism of festivals across the world, not just Glastonbury.
Organiser Emily Eavis is well aware of the issue and told Radio 1 Newsbeat in 2020: ‘When I look back at past Glastonbury line-ups, I realised it’s always been male-heavy.
‘Unless you consciously change and really address it, then it will stay the same because we’re always going to be flooded with male acts.’
In total, there have only been eight female headliners in the festival’s 54-year run — nine if you include 2020’s cancelled festival which had announced Taylor Swift.
2024 marked the first time in the festival’s history that two female performers took up headline slots in the same year.
Even more shockingly Between 1990’s headliner Sinead O’Connor and 2011’s performance from Beyonce, the festival did not have a single woman headline.
In fact, Coldplay, The Cure, and Oasis all headlined twice in that time, with Chris Martin coming back for a third round the same year as Beyonce’s Pyramid Stage debut.
With Olivia back in the country around Glastonbury weekend and the Get Him Back hitmaker selling out arenas across the country she could be an excellent choice for the Pyramid Stage.
Her two widely popular albums have produced three number-one hits and 14 charting songs, with over 2.3million monthly listeners.
Olivia’s debut album Sour landed her three Grammy Awards with follow-up Guts receiving Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album nods.
Dua, Beyonce, and Adele have all proved that there is an appetite for female headliners, despite grumbling from die-hard nostalgia rock fans.
This year, Dua Lipa’s performance was met with huge crowds and positive reactions so it’s no surprise organisers are looking for a similar talent next year.
Hopefully, this choice would prove more popular than SZA, who unfortunately had less than enthusiastic responses both when being announced and during her set.
Glastonbury has to find a balance between exciting new artists but they must still be big enough to carry the legendary stage; Olivia fits that bill.
Metro has reached out to Glastonbury and Olivia’s reps for comment.
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