Beyoncé 2011 Glastonbury performance

American singer Beyoncé headlined the 2011 Glastonbury Festival alongside acts U2 and Coldplay, performing on June 26, 2011 at the Pyramid Stage in Pilton, Somerset, England. She was the first solo Black woman to headline the Pyramid Stage (Musician Skin with rock band Skunk Anansie was the first Black female-fronted band to headline Pyramid Stage in 1999), and Beyoncé also became the first solo female artist to headline the festival since Sinéad O'Connor in 1990 (and Kylie Minogue in 2004, who was forced to cancel her performance due to a breast cancer diagnosis). While her festival headline announcement was initially met with skepticism from rock and indie music purists who considered the placement "a little too pop" for the festival, Beyoncé's performance was immediately met with critical acclaim, heralded by The Daily Telegraph as a "sassy triumph", "career-defining" by Billboard, and by others in the media as a "masterpiece", "killer", and "90 minutes of pure Bey greatness." The performance, which acted as the festival finale, generated over 2.6 million views individually, breaking the record at the time for most television views for a single performance.