How many women have headlined Glastonbury in the last 20 years?

You can count the number of women who have headlined Glastonbury in the last 20 years on one hand.

Dua Lipa performs onstage during the BRIT Awards 2024 at The O2 Arena
Dua Lipa will headline Glastonbury Festival 2024. (WireImage)

Glastonbury will make history in 2024 with two female acts headlining the Pyramid stage for the first time in its 50-plus year history.

Dua Lipa and SZA are topping the bill alongside Coldplay at the 2024 festival, with Shania Twain playing the Sunday afternoon legends slot.

It follows the 2023 festival which was criticised for having another all-male headline lineup of Elton John, Arctic Monkeys and Guns 'N' Roses.

Read more: Everything we know about Glastonbury 2024

Coldplay will make their first Pyramid Stage appearance since 2016 on the Saturday night, becoming the first act to headline Glastonbury five times.

Glastonbury Festival has become known for signing up older, enduring male stars to headline such as Sir Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder.

So how many women have headlined the Pyramid Stage in the last 20 years? We count them on one hand...

Billie Eilish - 2022

Billie Eilish performs on The Pyramid Stage during day three of Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 24, 2022 in Glastonbury, England. (Photo by Harry Durrant/Getty Images)
Billie Eilish performing on The Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival 2022. (Getty Images)

Not only was she flying the flag for female kind, Billie Eilish made history as the youngest ever headline act at Glastonbury Festival when she performed on opening night in 2022.

The 21-year-old Your Power singer played the Pyramid Stage on the Friday night as the festival made its great comeback after the coronavirus pandemic forced its cancellation for two years running.

Read more: The best music festivals of 2023

Eilish is only the fifth female headliner out of 45 acts in the past 20 years. And one of those was not the official headline act the year they performed, but were moved up the billing due to unforeseen circumstances.

Adele - 2016

Adele performs on The Pyramid Stage on day 2 of the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 25, 2016 in Glastonbury, England. Now its 46th year the festival is one largest music festivals in the world and this year features headline acts Muse, Adele and Coldplay. The Festival, which Michael Eavis started in 1970 when several hundred hippies paid just £1, now attracts more than 175,000 people.  (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)
Adele headlined on Saturday night at the festival in 2016. (Getty Images)

Adele was the big booking of Glastonbury 2016 - headlining the Pyramid Stage on Saturday night that year.

The Hometown Glory singer was very emotional about performing at the historic music venue.

Radio 1 DJ Jo Whiley revealed: "She was really scared, really, really scared. We were doing the interview and at one point she had to stop as she was in tears.

"She was saying how much Glastonbury meant to her, and she'd been going since she was a child."

Florence and The Machine - 2015

Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine performs on the Pyramid stage during Glastonbury Music Festival on Friday, June 26, 2015 at Worthy Farm, Glastonbury, England. (Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP)
Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine was moved up the bill in 2015. (AP)

The Foo Fighters had been due to headline the mainstage on Friday night at Glastonbury 2015. But three weeks before the festival it was revealed that frontman Dave Grohl had fallen off the stage at a gig in Sweden and broken his leg - forcing the band to cancel a number of appearances.

So Florence and the Machine were announced as the replacement headliner 10 days later and Florence Welch became the seventh female act to headline the Pyramid stage 45 years after the festival began.

Florence and the Machine performed a cover of the Foo Fighters' Times Like These as part of their set and dedicated it to Grohl.

Beyonce - 2011

U.S singer Beyonce performs on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury Music Festival, Sunday, June 26, 2011. More than 170,000 ticket-holders have arrived at Worthy Farm for the 41st festival. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)
Beyonce was the headline act on opening night of Glastonbury 2011. (AP)

Three years after her husband Jay-Z had headlined Glastonbury, the festival managed to persuade the Queen Bey to grace the Pyramid Stage on Friday night, helping girls see they can Run The World and headline music festivals.

Beyonce was already eight weeks pregnant with daughter Blue Ivy when she performed at Glasto.

Her pal Gwyneth Paltrow later revealed the Crazy In Love singer was suffering from terrible morning sickness.

Paltrow said: "She was absolutely incredible, especially as she was barfing in between."

Kylie Minogue - replaced by Basement Jaxx in 2005

Kylie Minogue performs live on the Pyramid Stage at Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset.
Kylie Minogue has performed many times at Glastonbury - but she closed the Pyramid Stage in 2005 after replacing Basement Jaxx. (Alamy)

Kylie Minogue was booked to close the festival in 2005. But she cancelled after being diagnosed with breast cancer.

The Spinning Around star has appeared at Glastonbury several times since, but never in the headline slot on the Pyramid Stage.

That same year Meg White headlined on the opening night with The White Stripes, drumming up some female representation.

Glastonbury Festival, Britain - Jun 2005, White Stripes - Meg White (Photo by Brian Rasic/Getty Images)
Meg White of the White Stripes performing at Glastonbury 2005. (Getty Images)

Taylor Swift - cancelled in 2020

Taylor Swift performs onstage during
Taylor Swift never made it to the Pyramid Stage. (Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)

Taylor Swift was booked to headline the Pyramid Stage on Saturday night in 2020 but the festival was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Sir Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar rescheduled their performances for the 2022 festival, but Swift decided to Shake It Off.

In the 53 years since the first Glastonbury, over 38 festivals, there have only been a handful of other women to secure the headline slot on the Pyramid Stage.

Read more: Glastonbury fans 'disappointed' as festival unveils all male headliner line-up

These include Sinead O'Connor, Shakespears Sister, Suzanne Vega and Skunk Anansie.

That's a total of nine acts.


Glastonbury 2024 takes place between Wednesday 26 and Sunday 30 June 2024.

Watch: Elton John will be joined by 'mystery guests' on Pyramid Stage.