Entertainment

Kylie Minogue: I could have lost it on Glastonbury stage

The Cure closed this year’s festival with a two-hour set.
The Cure closed this year’s festival with a two-hour set. The Cure closed this year’s festival with a two-hour set.

Kylie Minogue said she had to work hard not to do “the ugly cry” as she broke down at Glastonbury while recalling how breast cancer once robbed her of a headline slot.

The Australian singer, 51, was due to perform at the festival in 2005 but had to cancel to undergo treatment.

She took to the Pyramid Stage for her first full Glastonbury set on Sunday, and cried as she spoke about missing out before.

View this post on Instagram

❤️G. L. A. S. T. O. N. B. U. R. Y❤️

A post shared by Kylie Minogue (@kylieminogue) on

“I wished things were different, but life is what it is,” she said, remembering how she had watched that year’s acts from home.

Speaking afterwards, Minogue told Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 2 that she had thought she had “missed the boat” at the festival.

“I never thought I would be offered this particular… the teatime slot, it’s just amazing,” she said.

“I had all these emotions. I had to really work hard to pull that back.

“Don’t go to the ugly cry! Don’t do it!

“I really could have lost it but I thought if that happens I won’t be able to come back.”

The star went on: “It doesn’t make me think just about my story, about having a cancer diagnosis and suddenly the world caving in, or seemingly caving in around you, but it always makes me, and especially at that moment, so many people, think that we are all dealing with stuff.

“Everyone is dealing with stuff.

“You have been, or you will be.”

“That’s just part of life,” she added.

The jam-packed final day of the festival also included performances from Miley Cyrus and Billie Eilish, who was making her Glastonbury debut at 17.

Recalling her first big show in the UK, where she performed for 200 people, Eilish said: “I thought it was the most amazing thing and now it’s like the whole world is looking at me right now, and it’s incredible.”

Cyrus entertained with a racy show that saw her dancing suggestively and gyrating on the mic stand.

The former Hannah Montana star welcomed several other people to the stage, including her dad Billy Ray Cyrus, Lil Nas X and Mark Ronson, who joined her for Nothing Breaks Like A Heart and Back To Black.

Cyrus told the crowd that Glastonbury had changed her “f****** life drastically”.

The singer – who wore a belt spelling out the word “Glastonbury” in studs – continued: “I ask the universe every day, ‘Give me something that scares the f*** out of me and then I’m going to f****** do it’, so today that is motherf****** Glastonbury.”

Miley Cyrus at Glastonbury Festival 2019 – Day 5
Miley Cyrus at Glastonbury Festival 2019 – Day 5 Miley Cyrus (Yui Mok/PA)

There was a surprise for fans at the Pyramid Stage when Sir David Attenborough made an appearance.

The broadcaster introduced an extended trailer for the BBC’s new series Seven Worlds, One Planet – drawing huge cheers.

The Somerset festival was closed by The Cure, who were headlining for the fourth time.

The group, fronted by Robert Smith, performed hits including Plainsong and Friday I’m In Love before wrapping with Boys Don’t Cry.

Other acts to have performed during this year’s festival include Stormzy, Janet Jackson and The Killers.