Watch Kanye’s Full Glastonbury Set, Feat. Justin Vernon, A Stage Crasher, & “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Like much of what Kanye West does, his headlining set at Glastonbury was already a huge fucking deal before it even happened. Over 134,000 British fans signed a rockist/racist petition to “Cancel Kanye West’s headline slot and get a rock band,” and after Kanye’s (literally) explosive set at the BRIT Awards — which ITV had to mute due to the profanity — BBC suits worried about censorship issues.
Of course, this kind of controversy tends to feed on itself, continuously raising expectations of something crazy happening until it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Taking the Pyramid Stage, Kanye called himself the “greatest living rock star in the world,” and though the set started off smoothly with “Stronger” and “Power,” midway through “Black Skinhead” a man in a white “Lee-zus” t-shirt — later identified as comedian Simon Brodkin in the guise of his “Lee Nelson” character — took the stage and starting rapping along with Kanye before quickly getting hustled offstage by security. Kanye clearly wasn’t too happy about it, at first trying to ignore the distraction and keep going before giving up and restarting the song from the beginning.
There were some nice surprises during the set, though: Kanye brought out Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon — who he called “one of the baddest white boys on the planet” — to perform My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’s “Lost In The World” and Yeezus’ “Hold My Liquor.” Later Kanye did “All Of The Lights” and “Good Life” on a crane. He also sang along to a recording of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Watch clips of the stage-crashing incident, the Justin Vernon/Kanye collab, and the Queen cover below.
Some people were saying Kanye shouldn't headline Glastonbury so I thought I'd give him a hand. pic.twitter.com/7KFk2kgjsM
— Lee Nelson (@RealLeeNelson) June 27, 2015
SETLIST
“Stronger”
“Power”
“Niggas In Paris” (Jay-Z & Kanye West Cover)
“Black Skinhead”
“All Day”
“Cold”
“Clique” (Kanye West, Jay-Z, & Big Sean Cover)
“I Don’t Like” (Chief Keef Cover)
“Mercy”
“New Slaves”
“Blood On The Leaves”
“Heartless”
“I Wonder”
“FourFiveSeconds” (Rihanna Cover)
“Woods” (Bon Iver Cover)
“Lost In The World” (With Justin Vernon)
“Hold My Liquor” (With Justin Vernon)
“No Church In The Wild” (Jay-Z & Kanye West Cover)
“Jesus Walks”
“Diamonds From Sierra Leone”
“Bound 2″
“Runaway”
“Only One”
“Touch The Sky”
“All Of The Lights” (On Crane)
“Good Life” (On Crane)
“Bohemian Rhapsody” (Queen Cover)
“Can’t Tell Me Nothing”
Encore:
“Gold Digger”
“All Falls Down”
UPDATE: Here’s the full set.