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Jay-Z Wins over Doubters at Glastonbury Festival |
Contributed By: Josh DaNewYork
Created On: Tuesday, 01 July 2008
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 Jay-Z
The choice of the rapper to perform on the main stage at a festival best known for its guitar-based rock acts was widely criticized, and Oasis's Noel Gallagher riled the musician by saying the organizers were wrong to pick him.
Jay-Z's response was emphatic.
He opened his show with a film using Gallagher's now infamous comments and a montage of clips parodying him, before launching into an acoustic rendition of one of Oasis's biggest hits: "Wonderwall." Most fans and critics were impressed.
"His performance will go down in Glastonbury history," wrote the Independent in a Monday review of the festival. Rather than being booed off stage as some predicted, "both audience and artist rose to the occasion and turned in a moment of real, euphoric, pop-culture history," added the Times.
The Guardian concluded: "It's brilliantly staged, utterly thrilling and it makes Gallagher look a bit of a berk."
The Daily Mirror tabloid, however, described his performance as dull.
"I felt seriously short-changed as I walked away from this performance," it said.
Hundreds of other acts took the stage over the three-day event held on a dairy farm in southwest England, including Amy Winehouse, Gossip and veterans Jimmy Cliff, Neil Diamond and Leonard Cohen.
Organizers struggled to sell all of the tickets to this year's event unlike sellouts of recent years, but Jay-Z and the rest of the cast earned Glastonbury high marks.
"Suddenly, a festival whose very future seemed pretty bleak 24 hours ago feels like a triumph," said the Guardian.
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