SZA

[4AssedMonkey]

3 minutes ago, Havors said:

I think it would be a massive mistake to put SZA headlining Pyramid personally. Not that she isnt good but FML what a depressingly low beat headliner for the big stage. She hasnt got the banging sing alongs that Adele had... it will fail imho.  

I thought similar.  Couldn't see it hyping a crowd of potentially 40k+ people.

[Havors]

8 minutes ago, 4AssedMonkey said:

I thought similar.  Couldn't see it hyping a crowd of potentially 40k+ people.

Most of which probably dont know more than 1 song. I think shes pretty good but not a headline act for the Pyramid

[Wooderson]

Its a huge stretch for the festival. To be clear i'm not criticizing the artist one bit. She is perfect for WH headliner. Think a lot of (younger?) posters on here quite sensitive about this view, so will refrain from antagonizing further.

[NorthernSoul52]

I think her draw would make her among the biggest WH headliners we've ever seen.

But she would be a smaller Pyramid headliner to me. As I've said, if they gamble, hope she knocks it out of the park.

[NorthernSoul52]

If only there was a convenient headline position somewhere in size between Pyramid headliner and WH headliner, no?

[FestivalJamie]

As someone who didn't get a Glastonbury ticket and to put this into perspective, I am 23 and I know SZA (I don't actively listen to her music).

But she's had some huge hits among my generation. All the stars, Good Days, Kiss me More (with Doja Cat) and Kill Bill are a few of the most viral songs that I know, produced by any artist. 

My only issue with her is, apart from those viral hits, I think lots of her other songs are very unrecognisable and indistinguishable.

For Glastonbury it is in my opinion a great choice for a progressive headliner to move the festival in the right direction. I can understand every reason to book SZA over a rock band. I know some people were suggesting The National/Foals would get a bigger crowd than SZA, but I just don't think that's true. Foals are well known on the scene in the UK and always pull a big crowd, but the National played Sziget to one of the smallest headline crowds I saw that year at the festival.

At 70million monthly listens she's no small artist

Edited March 6 by FestivalJamie

[CaledonianGonzo]

Kiss Me Mores a huge tune tbf. Another one in the 'not a slow jam" column.

[Wooderson]

Reckon her set will be viewed similar to Kanye? Rapturously received by a good many but puzzled indifference by the majority. Its noeasy task to shoe-horn her brand of progressive R&B into that field. Add rain/mud to the mix and I wish her luck.

[CaledonianGonzo]

More like the first pure R&B artist to headline since Curtis Mayfield.....or, indeed, Stevie.

[NorthernSoul52]

Yeah, if the weather is crap, she'll struggle, but she wouldn't be the only one to do so.

Some of these tunes would be excellent sundown shouts.

[Alex DeLarge]

She has two singalong bangers but they're both collabs: All The Stars w/ Kung Fu Kenny and Kiss Me More w/ Doja.

Not beyond the realm of possibility she bring Doja out (who incidentally has a GSH).

Throw in Kill Bill and there's three mega-hits. Good Days/ Snooze/ The Weekend for popular tracks that her fans will all know.

It all depends on how she can structure the rest of the set. If she can get the field on board with stuff they're not familiar with (like Stormzy did, for example) then the job's a good one. If she's boring the tears off everyone like Gorillaz then it will look like a bad decision to take a punt on her.

[Nduja]

Love Galore (ft Travis Scott) is my jam forever. Also a potential bringer outer. Apparently Trav came out in Manchester during the arena tour. There's a Drake collab too, but I don't really think it's all that.

Consideration off Rihanna's last album ANTI is a great track but probably a bit too obscure. Most people probably don't even remember it because it was released a good 2 years before SZA blew up.

[fakeplastictrees2000]

On 3/5/2024 at 11:23 AM, CaledonianGonzo said:

Its not a "take". You can assess hits by things like chart position.

https://kworb.net/spotify/artist/2YZyLoL8N0Wb9xBt1NhZWg_songs.html

OK. It's got fewer streams at the moment than Humble, which is his biggest song by some distance. But it'll pass it easily by the end of this year. It's already out-performed All The Stars.

it is still almost half a billion off Humble, but if you mean in a purely chart/streaming sense that I guess you are right, its bigger than most of Kendricks tracks. 

In the context of live music I was also considering hits as something that will bring the energy live - and despite being a SZA fan I dont think many of her songs will in comparison to half of Kendricks catalogue.

[NorthernSoul52]

Thought we were still sizing up Doja to play, to be fair.

[4AssedMonkey]

I think the problem here is the Pyramid crowd.  Unlike any of the other stages on site, it suffers from a huge amount of people who stay there all day, never move and want to see/hear mainstream stuff they've heard on Radio 2.  Pluss a high percentage of camp chair Nazis and picnic blanket NIMBY's.  The Venn overlap between that crowd and SZA's output is very, very small and I don't see them warming to some of her themes.

[FestivalJamie]

I can recommend 'Nobody Gets me'

[glimmers_of_hope]

8 minutes ago, FestivalJamie said:

I can recommend 'Nobody Gets me'

Yeah "Nobody get's me" is a fantastic song and could be a total moment with the crowd.

[CaledonianGonzo]

+1 - it's ace

[NorthernSoul52]

One thing I will say - and this is not a dealbreaker, obviously - is that I cannot imagine SZA being one of those who provides a fabled "Glastonbury moment", in the DeVito-I-get-it mould. Think McCartney hauling out Grohl and Springsteen, Kendrick's relentless near-one-off theatre, Elton thrashing out Pinball Wizard. 

Imagine this would be a "business as usual"/"just another show"-type gig.

[CaledonianGonzo]

She could fairly easily bring out the likes of Kendrick or Drake.

[tarw]

39 minutes ago, 4AssedMonkey said:

I think the problem here is the Pyramid crowd.  Unlike any of the other stages on site, it suffers from a huge amount of people who stay there all day, never move and want to see/hear mainstream stuff they've heard on Radio 2.  Pluss a high percentage of camp chair Nazis and picnic blanket NIMBY's.  The Venn overlap between that crowd and SZA's output is very, very small and I don't see them warming to some of her themes.

But the Pyramid headline crowd is actually at least 3 different crowds

In front of the mixing desks/in the pit people who want to see that artist and they are the ones that the TV picks up.

mixing desks to halfway back people who stay all day and want mainstream fodder

At t the back it’s your picnic blanket and sprogs in chariots brigades.

The ones at the front are the important ones because they are the ones the artist and tv see.

[NorthernSoul52]

8 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

She could fairly easily bring out the likes of Kendrick or Drake.

Not sure Drake would fly halfway around the world for a guest appearance at a festival he's no historic affiliation with and for an act who might actually be smaller than him.

Kendrick, on the other hand...

[giantkatestacks]

I think for SZA it will really matter what they put up against on Other and WH as to the success. If you remove those fans in the pit then you're in trouble. So there has to be white boy rock on the other and white boy dance* on WH.

 

 

*I know this isnt a thing. 

[NorthernSoul52]

Let's have a crack then:

1 PSA
2 Seek and Destroy
3 Love Galore
4 Broken Clocks
5 Ghost in the Machine
6 Blind
7 Shirt
8 All the Stars
9 Boy from South Detroit
10 Garden (Say It Like Dat)
11 F2F
12 Drew Barrymore
13 DTM
14 Doves in the Wind
15 Low
16 Nobody Gets Me
17 SOS
18 Love Language
19 Kiss Me More
20 Snooze
21 Saturn
22 Kill Bill
23 I Hate U
24 The Weekend
25 Good Days

[Badlands]

Loved CTRL and she’s clearly a big deal but I remain to be convinced she’s got the chops for a headliner spot. Seen her sub at coachella in 18 and left nonplussed.

The live show that’s on Apple Music at the moment is very autotune heavy. Her recent shows were very production heavy so it’ll be interesting to see if she tries it like LDR attempted last year.

Drew Barrymore is a stone called tune mind!