Glastonbury 2023: Texas’ Sharleen Spiteri thanks “massive supporter of female musicians” Emily Eavis

Texas’ Sharleen Spiteri has thanked Glastonbury’s Emily Eavis for being a “massive supporter of female musicians” during the band’s performance on the Pyramid Stage.

The Glaswegian group took to the stage on Friday afternoon (June 23) to perform a career-spanning set. Towards the end of their one hour slot, Spiteri praised Eavis.

“Not because she’s ticking a fucking box to put us on these stages, she’s putting us on these stages because she thinks we’re fucking amazing,” Spiteri told the audience. “Emily Eavis is a massive supporter of female musicians.”

While this year’s festival has three male headliners, Eavis revealed earlier this year that it was in part due to scheduling conflicts and the unavailability of one proposed female headliner. Next year’s edition, meanwhile, will see two female headliners.

Speaking to The Guardian, Eavis confirmed that of the two female headliners for 2024, one has already been confirmed while the other is “close” to being booked. The Glasto boss also revealed that both headliners will be making their Glastonbury debuts, but did not share more information.

Back in 2018, Eavis spoke about the festival’s mission to have a more equal gender line-up.

“We’re working on it every day”, she told MusicWeek. “Every booking Glastonbury make is conscious; we’re trying to address the imbalance. We’ve got a way to go, there are areas of the festival that have 50/50 [gender representation], like The Park last year.

“But The Pyramid obviously isn’t and we’re working on it. I think there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Elsewhere at Glastonbury yesterday, Arctic Monkeys played a career-spanning set and Foo Fighters paid tribute to late drummer Taylor Hawkins during a surprise set as ‘The Churnups’.

Check out all the latest from Glastonbury 2023 on the NME liveblog here, and see more news, reviews, photos, interviews here.