Lana Del Rey has clarified she is playing Glastonbury and admitted she turned it down for the “last three years”.
The ‘Born To Die’ hitmaker had hinted she might not play the world-famous festival because she wasn’t impressed that the organisers didn’t announce she will have one of the top slots this summer when they released the first wave of artists on the line-up earlier this month, with headliners Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses and Sir Elton John listed at the top of the promotional poster alongside Lizzo – who organiser Emily Eavis said would have headlined if the ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ hitmakers hadn’t already been promised top billing – and then the rest of the acts mentioned in alphabetical order.
She reacted on Instagram: “Well, I’m actually headlining the 2nd stage. But since there was no consideration for announcing that we’ll see.”
However, after the festival put out a new line-up poster with the 37-year-old star higher up on the bill, she has confirmed she is headlining The Other Stage, which she admits is “unfathomable”.
The ‘White Dress’ singer admitted she rejected the festival three times because she didn’t feel worthy of playing Worthy Farm without a “big band”.
Speaking to Clara Amfo on BBC Radio 1, she said: “I am, I am, I am, I am. I’ve been excited to tell people, so I wanted to tell people because, as we started to announce some festivals, its unfathomable to me to headline the second stage of Glastonbury.
“They had asked me to play Glastonbury the last three years but we just weren’t ready. I didn’t want to say yes before we had a big band.”
Lana previously played the Pyramid Stage in 2014 and remembers it “vividly” as she suffered technical difficulties.
She recalled: “We did do it before, like eons ago.
“But honestly it feels like yesterday.
“I remember being on that stage vividly because I had never been on a stage where they set the crowd back about a thousand feet, so every time I tried to come forward past the monitors to get closer to everybody the feedback would ring through the crowd. I thought, ‘Oh wow, I’m really stuck on this stage – I can’t go down like I usually do and sing with everybody.'”
Lizzo also now has double billing with Guns N’ Roses.
Cat Stevens/Yusef is playing the Sunday afternoon legends slot.
Glastonbury takes place between June 21 and June 25.