Beyonce: First Pop Queen to Scale the Pyramid Stage

Grrrl Power

I don't know about you but I was more than a little bit shocked when Beyonce's headline performance at Glastonbury this year was highlighted for its feministic poignancy.   Beyonce was the first woman to headline the Pyramid Stage, the first in 41 years of the festival.

That her performance was a tour de force of Woman Power, man whipping curved frenzy just hammered the point home.  Where have the sisters been all these years?  What saddened me more was that although its a dire state for a festival to have no female solo headliner in 41 years could anyone really think of someone who'd have fitted the bill before Queen B stormed the Pyramid?

After casually racking my brains I wondered what of Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, Tracy Chapman, Janis Joplin, Patti Smith, Aretha Franklin, hell, Madonna?  Where were these ladies through the years on the most coveted of festival slots?

The Pop-ularization (with emphasis on the 'Pop') of Glastonbury in the last five years has seen a huge shift in the acceptability of festival going as a summer pursuit (er...Torie MPs in toilets were a large sign of the times, tragic deaths aside) and a noticeable shift in Glastonbury's headline slots towards family/middle of the road/sometimes questionable genres of music for the traditionally indie festival crowd.  Jay Z's hip slot showcase was a huge talking point, which quite frankly bored the bling off me.  Beyonce couldn't have dreamed of playing the festival 10 years ago not because of her gender but her style of music and label in the Pop section of the records store.  But perhaps this shift towards wider genres of music as headliners will see a rise in the number of females topping the bill.

That she should be the first female to play the Pyramid Stage of arguably the greatest music festival in the world was sobering.   That she delivered an astounding performance (backed by an equally impressive all-female band) soaked with soul, rock hard power and physical abandon made her a wonderful 'first' lady of Glastonbury history.  I hope we don't wait another 40 years to see a woman top the Pyramid.  After all its been quite a while since Cleopatra.

Read a review of Beyonce at Glastonbury 2011 here