London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Oct 19, 2025

Billie Eilish protests US abortion ruling at Glastonbury

Billie Eilish protests US abortion ruling at Glastonbury

Billie Eilish has used her Glastonbury headline set to address the US Supreme Court's decision to end the constitutional right to abortion.

"Today is a really, really dark day for women in the US," the 20-year-old said from the Pyramid Stage

"I'm just going to say that because I can't bear to think about it any longer."

She went on to dedicate Your Power, a song about older men who abuse their position, to everyone affected.

On Friday, the US Supreme Court overturned a 50-year-old ruling known as Roe v Wade that guaranteed nationwide abortion rights for women.

The decision means millions of women across the US will lose their legal right to abortion as individual states will be able to make their own laws on it.

Eilish was not the only performer at Glastonbury to protest the decision.

Earlier in the night, indie-folk star Phoebe Bridgers made a similar statement during her festival debut on the John Peel stage.

"This is my first time here. It's surreal and amazing but I'm having a real [expletive] day," she said.

Bridgers continued by cursing the "old" Supreme Court justices "who try to tell us what to do with our bodies".

Eilish's dynamic and gymnastic performance went down a storm


Eilish's performance makes her Glastonbury's youngest-ever solo headliner, at the age of 20.

She emerged on stage shortly after 22:00, amid blasts of white noise and sub-bass before launching into her opening song, Bury A Friend.

Prowling around the stage's catwalks and bending over backwards like an Exorcist character, she was met by cacophonous screams and word-perfect renditions of her songs from the very first note.

"Oh boy, I love you so much," she told the crowd, which stretched right to the back of the field in front of the Pyramid Stage.

Adopting a faux English accent, she added: "How are you doin?"

The star's set is heavily rumoured to feature a surprise appearance from Harry Styles - but so far, she has stuck faithfully to the running order of her ongoing Happier Than Ever world tour.

That has meant relying on fan favourites like I Didn't Change My Number, NDA and Billie Bossa Nova, instead of front-loading her set with more well-known hits.

Even so, a deep album cut like Goldwing has been sung at full volume by her fans, who are chanting her name repeatedly between songs.

"This is such an honour to be here, right now," she told them before playing When The Party's Over. "Thank you for letting me do this. This is such a trip and a dream."

Eilish's headline set is the culmination of Glastonbury's first day of music, which included appearances from Primal Scream, Arlo Parks, Little Simz and Supergrass.

Wolf Alice only made the festival by the skin of their teeth


On the Pyramid Stage, Wolf Alice delivered a blistering performance after a last-minute, transatlantic dash to the festival.

The band had been left stranded in Los Angeles on Wednesday night after their flight home was cancelled. After a light-hearted (and failed) appeal for the loan of a private jet, they finally made it back via a connecting flight in Seattle.

"So we were in Seattle about 10 hours ago, and we were worried about all the train strikes," Theo Ellis told BBC News shortly before their performance.

They were eventually escorted onto the site by a squadron of quadbikes.

"It felt like we were in Mission Impossible for 13 seconds," said Ellis. "But we made it and it kind of feels even more special to be here now."

"I still keep thinking something will happen and we won't get to play," added frontwoman Ellie Rowsell. "I'm getting scared about jinxing it."

But they did make it onto the stage, backed by a string quartet and tearing through the down-and-dirty riffs of their opening number, Smile.

As they reached the end of their set, the chaos finally caught up with Rowsell, who lay down on the stage to summon up the energy to sing their powerful ballad Last Man On Earth, When the song ended, she looked temporarily lost and flustered, until bandmate Joff Oddie clasped her in a hug.

"We didn't know if we were going to make it today," she told the audience, "so this is very surreal and we're very emotional".

Sam Fender's Springsteen-esque anthems kept the crowd singing after he left the stage


Sam Fender, second on the bill after Billie Eilish, was also overcome by the moment, struggling to regroup between songs, until the crowd buoyed him up with full-throated singalongs to 17 Going Under and Hypersonic Missiles.

"Me and the lads have never been to Glastonbury before. Not as a punter. Not as a performer," he said during the set. "Now we are doing the whole lot in one day. It's a trip."

Other opening day highlights included Spice Girl Melanie C joining Blossoms onstage for a rabble-rousing version of Spice Up Your Life; and a blissed-out set from Crowded House, who welcomed the mid-afternoon sun with a mash-up of The Kinks' Sunny Afternoon and their own Pineapple Head.

"I had no idea how good this would be," said frontman Neil Finn, after leading the crowd in a mass participation version of Weather With You.

"I think we're all reinventing the way the world works here at Glastonbury. Rediscovering community, kindness, common sense," he continued. "The people are rewilding."

The band also created a memorable Glastonbury moment when they invited out Buddy - Finn's grandson, and the son of guitarist Liam Finn.

Thousands of people started chanting the youngster's name as he moonwalked across the stage and pinched a microphone to join in the band's final song, I Got You.

Buddy squeaked along adorably to his grandfather's music, before leaving the stage with a brief, "Bye Bye!"


Away from the main stage, the festival was brought to a standstill by sets from Wet Leg (Park Stage) and 90s R&B legends TLC (West Holts). Both acts attracted so many fans that access roads had to be briefly closed.

The day was bookended by appeals for help from Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelensky gave a pre-recorded speech on The Other Stage before festival openers The Libertines, calling on the world to "spread the truth" over the invasion of Ukraine.

Zelensky said Ukraine "will not let Russia's war break us" and that he wants the war to stop before it "ruins people's lives in other countries of Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America".

"Spread the truth about Russia's war, help Ukrainians who are forced to flee their homes because of the war," he added.

Ukraine's Eurovision winners Kalush Orchestra will also play a late-night set in the Shangri-La area, starting shortly after 01:00.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Windows’ Own ‘Siri’ Has Arrived: You Can Now Talk to Your Computer
Thailand and Singapore Investigate Cambodian-Based Prince Group as U.S. and U.K. Sanctions Unfold
‘No Kings’ Protests Inflate Numbers — But History Shows Nations Collapse Without Strong Executive Power
Chinese Tech Giants Halt Stablecoin Launches After Beijing’s Regulatory Intervention
Manhattan Jury Holds BNP Paribas Liable for Enabling Sudanese Government Abuses
Trump Orders Immediate Release of Former Congressman George Santos After Commuting Prison Sentence
S&P Downgrades France’s Credit Rating, Citing Soaring Debt and Political Instability
Ofcom Rules BBC’s Gaza Documentary ‘Materially Misleading’ Over Narrator’s Hamas Ties
Diane Keaton’s Cause of Death Revealed as Pneumonia, Family Confirms
Former Lostprophets Frontman Ian Watkins Stabbed to Death in British Prison
"The Tsunami Is Coming, and It’s Massive": The World’s Richest Man Unveils a New AI Vision
Outsider, Heroine, Trailblazer: Diane Keaton Was Always a Little Strange — and Forever One of a Kind
Dramatic Development in the Death of 'Mango' Founder: Billionaire's Son Suspected of Murder
Two Years of Darkness: The Harrowing Testimonies of Israeli Hostages Emerging From Gaza Captivity
EU Moves to Use Frozen Russian Assets to Buy U.S. Weapons for Ukraine
Europe Emerges as the Biggest Casualty in U.S.-China Rare Earth Rivalry
HSBC Confronts Strategic Crossroads as NAB Seeks Only Retail Arm in Australia Exit
U.S. Chamber Sues Trump Over $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Shenzhen Expo Spotlights China’s Quantum Step in Semiconductor Self-Reliance
China Accelerates to the Forefront in Global Nuclear Fusion Race
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
Australia’s Wedgetail Spies Aid NATO Response as Russian MiGs Breach Estonian Airspace
McGowan Urges Chalmers to Cut Spending Over Tax Hike to Close $20 Billion Budget Gap
Victoria Orders Review of Transgender Prison Placement Amid Safety Concerns for Female Inmates
U.S. Treasury Mobilises New $20 Billion Debt Facility to Stabilise Argentina
French Business Leaders Decry Budget as Macron’s Pro-Enterprise Promise Undermined
Trump Claims Modi Pledged India Would End Russian Oil Imports Amid U.S. Tariff Pressure
Surging AI Startup Valuations Fuel Bubble Concerns Among Top Investors
Australian Punter Archie Wilson Tears Up During Nebraska Press Conference, Sparking Conversation on Male Vulnerability
Australia Confirms U.S. Access to Upgraded Submarine Shipyard Under AUKUS Deal
“Firepower” Promised for Ukraine as NATO Ministers Meet — But U.S. Tomahawks Remain Undecided
Brands Confront New Dilemma as Extremists Adopt Fashion Labels
The Sydney Sweeney and Jeans Storm: “The Outcome Surpassed Our Wildest Dreams”
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
×