The Glastonbury festival 2023 line-up may have sparked a backlash due to it’s male-dominated headliners, but one female singer has come out batting in defence of the annual event and its treatment for women.
Despite no main stage female headliners, Texas star Sharleen Spiteri thinks that the bosses behind the festival have done wonders for equality in music.
The 55-year-old Say What You Want singer was performing with her band on the Pyramid stage on Friday ahead of the Foo Fighters, Royal Blood and headliners Arctic Monkeys.
And taking a moment away from singing, the Scottish songstress delivered a passionate and foul mouthed speech about how much respect she thinks Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis has.
Sharleen Spiteri thinks Emily Eavis did a great job promoting women at Glastonbury despite there being no female headliners (Maja Smiejkowska/REX/Shutterstock)Sharleen said: “Emily Eavis is a massive supporter of female musicians.
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“Not because she’s ticking a f***ing box to have them on the stages.
"She’s put us on these stages because she thinks we’re f***ing amazing.”
Back in March, a bitter backlash was sparked when the 2023 line-up was unveiled with a noticeable lack of diversity among the headliners.
Guns N´ Roses will headline the Pyramid Stage on Saturday (Getty Images)Ageing rockers Guns N Roses, retiring piano maestro Sir Elton John, and revered indie boys Arctic Monkeys took the main top spots for the weekend events.
And while music fans were appalled to see a lack of female talent given a top slot, organiser Emily has been batting away criticism since the line-up was announced.
She pleaded to the Guardian amid the backlash back in March: "We’re trying our best so the pipeline needs to be developed. This starts way back with the record companies, radio. I can shout as loud as I like but we need to get everyone on board."
She continued to say Glastonbury is "entirely focused on balancing [our] bill" in terms of gender but "every aspect of diversity".
While more recently she told Cosmopolitan magazine: “I think everyone knows that we’re trying harder than most, certainly extremely hard to address (the gender balance of acts), and I’ve been very vocal about it.
“I’m trying my best and, believe me, it’s a real, passionate subject of mine. I’ve been trying to raise the flag around gender and festivals for a long time. But we can only do so much.
“I just do what I think is right. Because I don’t have an agenda, I’m just trying to do the best thing for the festival and make it as fair and equal and brilliant as possible.”
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Sir Elton John will headline on Sunday (PYMCA/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)Lana Del Rey, who headlines the Other Stage on Saturday, even threatened to pull out of the festival when the backlash over lack of diversity raged and her own slot was not publicised.
She grumbled back in March: “Well, I’m actually headlining the 2nd stage. But since there was no consideration for announcing that we’ll see.”
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