Shania Twain live at Glastonbury: Legends slot is less yeehaw, more yee-huh?
It's a fun teatime slot, but one that just falls short of greatness.
By Nick Reilly
On the final day of Glastonbury, the Pyramid Stage field is a sea of a bejewelled cowboy hats, and t-shirts printed with “yeehaw” slogans as the area attracts only the second biggest crowd of the weekend behind Coldplay.
Shania Twain, it’s fair to say, is the kind of rhinestone-studded booking that teatime Glastonbury slots – previously graced by the likes of Dolly Parton and the late Kenny Rodgers – are made of. It means she’s determined to deliver a spectacle from the off, opening with ‘That Don’t Impress Me Much’ as every word is suitably hollered back at her from a crowd that stretches right to the top of the hill.
But after that blockbuster start, things take a turn for the worst. The country star’s voice often appears to be drowned out and whispery, while she constantly fiddles with her in-ear monitors to hint at difficulties hearing herself.
Consequently, it means that she doesn’t appear at ease with the party-starting atmosphere that Glastonbury teatime slots often generate. She describes it as a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience and speaks of her gratitude to be at Worthy Farm, but it’s at odds with the awkward performance that she initially delivers up. It’s still fun for the thousands of fans in attendance, but there’s a growing sense that it’s not quite what they expected.
Thankfully, she settles into it more a little later. A “fuck yeah!” to her fans and a hearty grin between songs reflects a marked improvement in the set’s general vibe, while her performance of ‘You’re Still The One’ – which start on acoustic guitar – offers up one of the weekend’s most heartfelt singalongs.
By the time she concludes with ‘That Don’t Impress Me Much’, there’s no doubt that she’s ticked the boxes for everything a legends slot should be: classic songs delivered to a crowd desperate for one last party of the weekend.
Too often though, it’s a stop-start, awkward show that takes a little too long to get going. Glastonbury eventually giddied up, but this frustrating show felt like an undercooked spectacle.