Glastonbury 2024: Watch Avril Lavigne perform debut single ‘Complicated’
During her first-ever performance at Glastonbury Festival on June 30th, Avril Lavigne performed her 2002 debut single, ‘Complicated’.
Drawing in a huge audience on The Other Stage, Lavigne’s clangorous set was received to thunderous applause from the onset, with fans singing back every word. “Glastonbury, what’s up?” she screamed after the energetic opener ‘Girlfriend’, the 2007 hit which was her first-ever US number one.
However, opting to perform her 2002 debut hit ‘Complicated’ so early on proved to be a masterstroke from the Canadian, which had the audience echoing the words in nostalgic revelry. A throwback but also a timeless number, it’s tracks such as these that confirmed her iconic status two decades ago, and earned such a healthy crowd this Sunday.
Lavigne said before tearing into the iconic hit: “Glastonbury, holy shit, I can’t believe it’s taken me 22 years to actually be here. Wow. Well, it is about time, okay, well this song is my first single off my first album, and I wanna dedicate this song to anybody out there who’s been supporting my music, listening to my music from day one; this goes to you. I fucking love you.”
With contemporary heavyweights such as Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, Olivia Rodrigo, Pale Waves, and others citing Lavigne as a consequential influence on their styles, she made good on this revered standing at the festival. Delivering a career-spanning set brimming with favourites, the crowd – comprised of those there to relive a time long since past and younger ones seeking to travel back to a period they weren’t around for – were one of the most receptive of the weekend. It explained where most people were for Janelle Monáe’s set, which attracted a much smaller number than expected.
Lavigne wasn’t the only Canadian champion of female empowerment who took to Glastonbury on Sunday. Filling in 2024’s legends slot on the Pyramid Stage, country-pop icon Shania Twain, fulfilled her recent promise to regale fans with all her best-loved numbers championing the female cause.
In proper form, she opened with ‘That Don’t Impress Me Much’. Famously, the song depicts three arrogant suitors who give Twain the proverbial “ick”. Famously, she tells the narcissistic one, “Okay, so you’re Brad Pitt”, referring to his scandal in the late 1990s with then-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow. Not long after the rendition, she told the crowd when coming closer to them down the ramp: “I just wanna say like I see a lot of cowboy hats and leopard print, I feel and I see your support. Thank you so much for having me.”
Saturday’s Glastonbury headliners were Coldplay, who stunned everyone when they brought Hollywood legend Michael J. Fox out on stage. Tonight’s final headliner is R&B star, SZA.
Watch Avril Lavigne perform ‘Complicated’ at Glastonbury Festival below.
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