Charli xcx’s ‘Brat’ Steals the Show at Glastonbury 2025: 5 Best Moments

How to bring Charli xcx’s one-woman show – a triumph of emotive pop hedonism and discomfiting intimacy – to a sprawling, city-sized Worthy Farm? It was never going to be an easy task.

Yet there have been few sets at this year’s Glastonbury Festival more anticipated than Charli’s Saturday night Other Stage headline slot. The slime-green tinge of Brat Summer has remained bright and potent in all corners of pop culture since the 32-year-old released her sixth studio album last summer, elevating her from cult starlet to five BRIT wins and sold-out arenas on both sides of the Atlantic – an impossibly huge feat, given how idiosyncratic and debauched her vision of pop is.

Saturday’s billing is even more impressive when you remember that, only three years ago, the Essex-raised singer seemed disillusioned with her career; ill-at-ease with the major label system machine and stung by mixed opinions on 2022’s slick (and safe) Crash – a record she has since admitted that she is unable to listen to in full. She continued to climb to her feet after being knocked down, however; she now possesses the powerful air of a victorious underdog.

More than 60,000 fans showed up in their sequined droves to this milestone-making moment for Charli, with Glastonbury organizers having upped capacity at the Other Stage this year to avoid overcrowding. Wearing a black leather two-piece and an Alexander McQueen scarf, the set immediately plunged into the club-focused physicality of Brat, with an overdubbing of bass resulting in a genuinely thrilling racket – as visceral and propulsive as a warehouse rave.

With no special guest appearances (Lorde, where art thou?), Charli performed this confidently minimalist show entirely solo, with a set consisting merely of a series of alternating white stage lights. But the power of this blank production canvas is that it lets audience members project their own lives and stories onto the music. 

Here are the five best moments from Charli’s Other Stage headline slot.