SZA breaks silence after Glastonbury headline set plagued with technical issues

Some said it sounded like she was 'singing into a fan'

The Worthy Farm festival came to an end yesterday, with US R&B star SZA closing out the weekend on Sunday night.

Whilst not a household name here in the UK, the singer is one of the most-streamed artists in the world, and her 2022 album SOS received critical acclaim on its release.

But the 34-year-old seemed to struggle to captivate the crowd on the Pyramid Stage, as her performance was affected by issues with her microphone.

Writing on social media, one person said it sounded like she was "singing into a fan," whilst someone else said the mic issues were the fault of festival, pointing out that SZA had sounded "incredible" the night before at her show in Hyde Park.

SZA has now posted on social media about the set, thanking her team for making "then impossible possible."

The singer wrote on Instagram: "Tonight I faced my fears. Tonight my entire team made the impossible possible!!"

After shouting out her team, dancers, band and "every single person that helped make this happen," she added: "Thank you from the bottom of my heart for dreaming with me. Glastonbury 2024 down."

She made no reference to any of the sound issues.

Along with the sound issues, the crowd for SZA's performance also seemed to be pretty sparse considering it was the final night of the festival.

In a review of the performance, the BBC's Mark Savage said the singer "drew the smallest audience I've ever seen for a Glastonbury headliner, in more than 20 years of coming to the festival."

He continued: "It didn't help that, for at least the first half an hour, her microphone was both distorted and muffled - an issue for an artist whose appeal lies in the precision of her lyrics and the beauty of their jazzy vocal runs."

He praised her " sinuous choreography and compelling stage presence" but suggested that the R&B star's set was a "sublime show in the wrong venue - a problem that has repeatedly blighted this year's Glastonbury."

Meanwhile, in a four-star review of her set, the Independent also noted that the crowd was "one of the sparsest in recent memory."