“It scared me. I was like, well, I wish I wasn’t doing it, but I couldn’t walk away from it.”
The singer said she had also felt pressure as the “second black woman in history” to headline the festival (Beyoncé was the first in 2011, although Skin from the band Skunk Anansie also has a claim to the title, after headlining in 1999).
“It’s such a tall order,” SZA told Vogue. “It’s like, no matter what you do here, you will be subject to criticism because of who you are.
“But that’s life. That’s life, you know?”
The star, whose hits include Kill Bill, Kiss Me More and Nobody Gets Me, was widely rumoured to have been bumped up the bill after another US artist pulled out.
She was also programmed against four other major acts: French electronic music duo Justice on the West Holts stage, James Blake on Woodsies, London Grammar on the Park Stage and The National on the Other Stage.
Despite a low turn-out, SZA’s Glastonbury set was well-received. Highly theatrical, it saw the 35-year-old perform inside a mossy grotto, singing on top of a giant mechanical beetle and ascending a tree trunk in fairy wings.
In a five star review, the Guardian called the show “peculiar” but “hugely rewarding”, external.
Highlighting the star’s intricate choreography, the Independent, awarded four stars, saying “melancholy, oddly intimate” performance “frequently leaves you breathless, external.”
The BBC’s own review praised her “spectacular vocal command” and “compelling stage presence”, but that the Pyramid Stage had been the “wrong venue”.
