Elton John, Rina Sawayama, Rick Astley music streaming figures ...
Streams of music by Elton John, Rina Sawayama, Rick Astley and more have spiked after their performances at Glastonbury this weekend.
According to a new Spotify round-up of this year’s Glastonbury tracks and artists that was shared with NME, streams of John’s songs increased 294 per cent in the UK in the hour after his career-spanning headline set on the Pyramid Stage yesterday (June 25).
Gun N’ Roses‘ opening track of their headline set on the Pyramid stage on Saturday (June 24), ‘It’s So Easy’, saw a 300 per cent increase in streams in the UK on Sunday.
Axl Rose and Slash of Guns N’ Roses perform on the Pyramid Stage on Day 4 of Glastonbury Festival 2023. Credit: Leon Neal/Getty ImagesMeanwhile, Friday (June 23) headliners Arctic Monkeys, were identified as the artists with the most tracks on user-generated Glastonbury playlists.
Rick Astley’s debut Glastonbury performance was also followed by a 294 per cent spike in steams of his song ‘Dance’ in the UK. During his set, Astley performed a cover of Harry Styles’ ‘As It Was’, before going on to perform with Blossoms for a surprise set at consisting solely of The Smiths covers.
GLASTONBURY, ENGLAND – JUNE 25: EDITORIAL USE ONLY. Sir Elton John and Rina Sawayama perform on stage during Day 5 of Glastonbury Festival 2023 on June 25, 2023 in Glastonbury, England. (Photo by Harry Durrant/Getty Images)After Rina Sawayama’s Woodsies Stage performance on Saturday (before she joined John on-stage as a special guest the following day), her music experienced a huge spike in global (55 per cent) and UK (99 per cent) streams on Sunday.
Her track ‘STFU’, dedicated to Matty Healy, saw increases of 522 per cent in the UK and 399 per cent globally.
Other performances that appeared to strike a chord with listeners included Lewis Capaldi on Saturday – who noticeably experienced vocal difficulties and struggled with tics on stage due to his Tourette’s syndrome – with his music seeing a 42.4 per cent spike on Sunday.
There was also a 148 per cent UK increase in streams of Yusuf/Cat Stevens‘ ‘Lady D’Arbanville’, after the artist delivered what fans described as a “mesmerising” and emotional performance.
According to data, fans were also creating their own Glastonbury-themed playlists – over 23,000 with Glastonbury in their title emerged in the last week. The most popular tracks in those playlists were John’s ‘Rocketman’, which featured in 7,311 playlists, and Lizzo’s ‘About Damn Time’ which was in more than 7,000.
In a five star review of John’s Glastonbury performance, NME said the show was “one of the festival’s best-ever headline sets”.
His set also broke viewing figures on the BBC, with millions watching across the UK.
Check out all the latest from Glastonbury 2023 on NME’s Friday, Saturday and Sunday liveblogs, and see more news, reviews, photos, interviews and more here.
