celeb news Headliner SZA performs to an empty field at Glastonbury

[Papi Juancho]

1 hour ago, bad guy said:

Some of the Lipsters trying it with SZA's success in the UK when SOS is literally right next to RO on the UK charts 

 

But where are those people? You should pass this memo next time.

 

[Hunter_13]

Seems like spotify autoplay doesn't guarantee the GP cares about you irl. 

[Dysmorphia]

Everyone I know was saying her name as 3 seperate letters, so personally I feel she just isn't well known here. 

[Nazareth]

7 hours ago, Duanielipa said:

 

SZA is massive in the US but I don't think she's really broken through in the UK and the pyramid stage is just too big for how popular she is here. Also glastonbury audience tends to be older and more into rock.

She has a much younger fan base in the UK and the demographic is definitely not the Glastonbury type. But I will say that she sold out her BST date and last year's European leg included multiple London shows, at least 5 sold out shows, so SZA is huge in the UK.
 

I think she needs to build her profile. As of now, she's just a name here. A few talk show / radio appearances would make a huge difference.  

[Joesuxx]

It was always a stupid decision to put Sza on headlining duty's on the pyramid. She should have headlined Woodsies or the Other Stage - she has the youth vote as you could see from the broadcast, nobody appeared to be other 25. However Glasto is expensive, the younger kids can't afford it. Whilst she was on she was up against London Grammar who were absolutely packed out and probably should have had the headline slot on Sza's stage. Paloma drew a bigger crowd earlier in the day. Avril and Sugababes both deserved bigger spaces and avril would have made a better headliner - her set had one of the best responses and biggest turn outs of the weekend. 

[305]

Isn't she big in the UK? I thought she was huge there 

[Joesuxx]

7 hours ago, liquiddiamonds said:

Kill Bill is her only top 10 in the UK. Yeah she sells albums there, but one has to wonder if her R&B audience would pay the whole of Glastonbury just to catch SZA. How many other R&B artists were in the bill today? Usually festivals put similar acts in the same day so they can attract genre fans

 

edit: i saw they kinda tried with Burna Boy and Janelle Monae performing before her from 5pm onwards. Although i must notice it was kinda abrupt coming from Shania Twain and others that performed earlier lol How was it the attendance for those two acts? I saw they put Avril at the same time as Janelle was headlining the Pyramid stage

Shania had the legends slot - it's always out of field on a Sunday afternoon. Burns and Janelle both had bigger uk acts on other stages. They were only put on that stage on the same day as Sza so the Eavis' racist tokenism was fully displayed. 
 

SZA should have headlined woodsies and swapped with London Grammar, there's literally no room to move for them last night. Same with avril and sugababes, then not putting Sugababes on a larger stage was shameful and dangerous after they had the biggest attendance last time. Literally no rational reason for their placing but I do see what others are saying.  

 

SZA was a great booking in terms of the global industry however in the UK she really is just recipient the youth vote, so many under 20's in her crowd yesterday but unfortunately for Glastonbury their prices do not cater to the same age range as their Sunday headliner, hence why the majority of the audience went to London Grammar who are huge in the UK by comparison. 

[glitch]

6 hours ago, Gwendolyn said:

People who usually listen to SZA aren't going to Glastonbury. She hasn't crossed over to the UK GP outside Gen Z yet.

 

That doesn't knock down  SOS being a successful album here and Kill Bill being a Top 10 hit and her selling out the O2 4 times, for some of you this thread.

Basically yeah. This was the wrong crowd for SZA. She had a massive reception when she did the Wireless festival a couple of years ago, which is a more hip hop/R&B crowd. People want pop or rock music at Glastonbury

[Princess Aurora]

I mean, SZA isn't very popular in the UK, right? Either way this is really weird.

[Janet]

8 hours ago, Taylena said:

At what time did she perform? Maybe people were just watching the England game. 

She headlined a few hours after the game finished.

 

 

[Chemist]

Strange. Her set at Primavera Sound this year was quite crowded and nobody questioned her headliner spot.

 

But yeah maybe it's the Glastonbury crowd. White older men are definitely not familiar with her

[Alex]

Yeah when I saw her headlining at Wireless festival (predominantly R&B + Hip-hop festival) in London 2 years ago, the crowd was PACKED. It's definitely not a popularity thing. I just don't think Glastonbury audiences moves for R&B like that which is a whole other conversation to unpack. 

[MilanY]

What the f"ck is SZA?

[Raiden]

4 hours ago, Dysmorphia said:

Everyone I know was saying her name as 3 seperate letters, so personally I feel she just isn't well known here. 

 

It's clearly a UK thing.

 

SZA is doing the European festival circuits, not just Glasto — yet only that one is half empty.

[Raiden]

3 hours ago, Nazareth said:

She has a much younger fan base in the UK and the demographic is definitely not the Glastonbury type. But I will say that she sold out her BST date and last year's European leg included multiple London shows, at least 5 sold out shows, so SZA is huge in the UK.
 

I think she needs to build her profile. As of now, she's just a name here. A few talk show / radio appearances would make a huge difference.  

 

Younsters go to Glastonbury too — but they are outflanked by the geriatrics.

 

SZA needs to be more gen-focused in her future British tours.

[Gyal]

there's so many factors to this it's actually insane. If you're into R&B, outside of SZA there is nobody else for you to listen to, so you'd probably just catch one of her shows and not go to the festival. The majority of people in England go to festivals to get drunk, do drugs and dance not cry about their ex's to a SZA set. If this was at wireless the crowd would go crazy.

[Kiel D-01]

Yeah I was there last night, the audience wasn't nearly as big as I expected (kinda made me happy cos it was far easier to get closer to the stage, the crowd was relatively sparse). 

[Armani?]

13 hours ago, Cheers said:

She's local as hell what were they thinking ❓ 

Did she not tour UK with her own tour doing arenas???

[Virgos Groove]

Both Kill Bill and SOS were top-10 in the 2023 UK year-end. Maybe she isn't big enough to headline yet, but why are we acting like her music is unknown?

[Soda Pop Queen]

At least she still performed for the people that wanted to see her there and didn't try to cancel last minute to save face. Whether it's 3 people or 30000 people, I would put in a show.

[HonourableVomit]

2 hours ago, Gyal said:

there's so many factors to this it's actually insane. If you're into R&B, outside of SZA there is nobody else for you to listen to, so you'd probably just catch one of her shows and not go to the festival. The majority of people in England go to festivals to get drunk, do drugs and dance not cry about their ex's to a SZA set. If this was at wireless the crowd would go crazy.

Burna Boy and Janelle Monae were on before her 

[Gossip_Boy]

The idea that she's not popular here is stupid. You're not selling out several nights at the O2 on a fluke. Nor shifting 60k+ tickets at Hyde Park either.

 

The problem is there's a big gap between her audience and that of of the festival's. This as well as the massive underestimation of Avril Lavigne makes me think the organisers of have a problem grasping what their audience wants.

 

SZA's set was a bit unfortunate in general. Knowing how insecure she tends to be, I hope she doesn't take it too hard.
 

[katara]

This is not suprising at all. I was shocked when I read that she was headlining. Europe doesn't use her like that. She has one solo hit here (Kill Bill).

 

This is also why I find the comments saying that she is much bigger than Dua so laughable. I mean it might be true from the perspective of someone from the US but from an euopean perspective it's like saying Camila is bigger than Ariana.

Edited Monday at 02:14 PM by katara

[B-Luke]

Oh she'll push the album back far into the future after that as a punishment.

[NoAngelus]

I'm not surprised. Can't name a single song by her, never actually heard any of her songs. Free streams don't necessary translate to actual relevance in the world.