Beyoncé at Glastonbury 2011 – review

Beyoncé's headline slot has attracted none of the this-doesn't-belong-at-Glastonbury controversy of her husband Jay-Z's headline performance a few years ago, but there's a definite sense of curiosity in the air before she takes the stage: what is the biggest R&B star in the world going to do? The immediate answer appears to be everything at once: let off fireworks, rise out of the stage on a hydraulic platform doing a choreographed dance routine while singing her biggest hit Crazy in Love.

It's a pretty gobsmacking opening that leaves you wondering what she's going to do next, but more gobsmacking still is that the show doesn't sag afterwards. She hurtles into Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It). More fireworks. More dancing. Aside from a faintly baffling guest appearance by Tricky – who seems as confused by his arrival onstage as the audience – she never puts a foot wrong, rattling through Destiny's Child hits and covers of Alanis Morisette's You Oughta Know, Kings of Leon's Sex on Fire and Etta James's At Last, the latter over footage of the civil rights movement and president Obama, the sheer visceral power of her voice chafing thrillingly against the slickness of the show.

Moreover, she engages with the festival itself – Halo is accompanied by footage of Glastonbury goers in the mud, which doesn't make an enormous amount of sense but is at least a nice thought – and looks genuinely taken aback by the reception: "You are witnessing a dream! I always wanted to be a rock star!" she shouts, clearly utterly delighted. The noise the audience make in response suggests the feeling is entirely mutual.