We're Due change

Pop powerhouse as headline act puts female talent on top after all-male affair

- MARK JEFFERIES

She only has a couple of months left to prepare for her headline Glastonbury set but the journey to this pop pinnacle began a long, long time ago for Dua Lipa.

Ever since the 28-year-old signed with Warner Records a decade ago, she says one word has continued to come up in chats with label bosses over and over again - Glastonbury.

"I like to write down plans, ideas or dreams that I have and, around the time of my first record, I wrote that, by the time I got to my third album, I'd like to headline Glastonbury and work with Tame Impala," she says.

"Any song I've ever made, when I hear it back, I'm like, 'How would this sound at Glastonbury? That has always been my barometer. To get to headline is just absolutely surreal."

Her top billing on the Pyramid Stage, as one of two females with SZA, alongside Coldplay, will make amends for the criticism of last year's all-male headline acts Arctic Monkeys, Guns N' Roses and Elton John.

Commenting on the changed musical landscape this year, she says: "There are just a lot more male artists and in the history of festivals women [have been less prominent].