“Hats off to you, Glastonbury,” Shania Twain announces with all but a wink as she looks admiringly out across the plain, taking in a field filled with thousands of weary festival-goers – every other one of whom, it seems, is rocking a pink cowboy hat.
She doesn’t arrive on the Pyramid Stage for her gloriously camp Legends slot astride a horse, as she hinted she would, but she does canter onstage in a pink ruffled cape. That’s soon discarded, mind, as she runs up and down the Pyramid with all the gusto of Joe Wicks, who led a mass workout on the Park Stage on Friday.
The 58-year-old opens with ‘That Don’t Impress Me Much’, an endorphin rush of a song that sets the tone for a show that surely lifts many a spirit. Then comes a rhinestone volley of county-pop bangers with which she seems determined to warm hearts and raise pulses. “When you’re having a shitty day, look back on this day at Glastonbury,” she beams.
Shania Twain at Glastonbury 2024. Credit: Joseph Okpako/WireImage
At times, though, Shania seems genuinely overawed by the enormity of the audience, tumbling off stream-of-consciousness mutterings that makes you wonder what happened to the slick patter she presumably brings to her Las Vegas residencies. She wonders how “you make it to pee” when you’re in a crowd at a festival. If you had a quid for every time Shania says she’s “grateful” to be here, you could turn Worthy Farm into your own personal cattle ranch.
You can’t argue with the songs, her voice or the way her guitarists shred their axes, though. The rumoured Harry Styles appearance obviously doesn’t come off, but there’s enough camp to go around when she hams up it during an a capella section of ‘You’re Still the One’ and her fiddle player absolutely loses it during ‘Any Man of Mine’. By the time she inevitably closes with ‘Man! I Feel Like A Woman!’ and pink flares stream across a field full of cowboys and gals belting it out karaoke-style (“Man’s shirts! Short skirt!”), you’d have to admit she’s revved the crowd up pretty well.
So move over, Joe Wicks: if you find yourself flagging on day three at a festival, what you really need is a rejuvenating bonanza of pop high-camp replete with cowboy hats, pink clobber and a good fiddle. Looks like we made it.
Shania Twain’s Glastonbury 2024 setlist was:
‘That Don’t Impress Me Much’
‘Don’t Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)’
‘You Win My Love’
‘Up!’
‘I’m Gonna Getcha Good!’
‘You’re Still the One’
‘Forever and for Always’
‘Come on Over’
‘Any Man of Mine’
‘Giddy Up!’
‘Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?’
‘Honey, I’m Home’
‘From This Moment On’
‘(If You’re Not in It for Love) I’m Outta Here!’
‘Man! I Feel Like a Woman!’
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