What were you doing when you were 21? Whatever it was, we don’t think it’ll top
Alessi Rose, who was selling out an entire UK and European tour in mere minutes. Yes, she’s a pop megastar in the making, and it feels like everyone at the Other Stage got the memo. 11:30am on Saturday can be a tough sell at any festival, but judging by the intensity of the crowd response to basically everything Alessi does, she’s absolutely nailed it.
Warming up the many sore heads and weary limbs with her unique blend of pop sensibilities and whip-smart lyrics, she treats the set like it’s her very own arena headline. There's an intimacy to her stage performance, too, with disarmingly conversational between-song chat - at one point she just stops to shout “best first
Glastonbury ever!” with the kind of giddy excitement anyone would feel on such a big stage.
For anyone who caught Alessi on her support run with Dua Lipa, there's a Glastonbury-specific surprise in the form of the folky, guitar driven ‘start all over’, the perfect soundtrack to a hazily sunny Saturday. The highlight is the driving singalong of ‘oh my’, sparking a singalong from basically everyone watching.
Playing Glastonbury is the dream of pretty much everyone to ever write a song. Playing Glastonbury’s second stage so early in your career, pulling it off perfectly, and then having the rest of the day to find the perfect spot to watch Charli XCX from? It’s a touch more specific than the first dream, but for Alessi Rose, it’s just come true.
