Billie Eilish to be Glastonbury Festival's youngest solo headliner

Billie Eilish has been announced as the first headliner for the 2022 Glastonbury Festival.

The pop star first hinted at the news on Instagram, where she posed in a Glastonbury hoodie, with the caption "2022".

Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis later confirmed the booking, and said the 20-year-old would be "the youngest solo headliner in our history."

"This feels like the perfect way for us to return and I cannot wait!"

Eilish will also be the first female headliner since 2016 - although Taylor Swift was booked to play in 2020, before the Covid pandemic put an end to the summer festival season.

Glastonbury was also cancelled this year, although organisers staged a virtual event with artists including Coldplay, Wolf Alice and Jorja Smith.

Eilish's first appearance at Glastonbury in 2019 was hailed as a triumph by critics.

The NME called it a "once-in-a-generation" show, while Variety called it a "mesmerising" and "life-affirming" performance.

Dressed in a Stella McCartney outfit, the singer bounded around the stage as fans sang back every word of songs like Bad Guy, All The Good Girls Go To Hell and You Should See Me In A Crown.

During Ocean Eyes, she sat cross-legged on the stage and asked fans to give the show their full attention.

"If you want to film me, that's OK - but put the phone next to your face and look me in the eye.

"Because we're right here now together and this is the only moment we ever get together, ever."

She needn't have worried. Approximately 40,000 rapt fans watched her every move. Not bad, when you consider her set had been upgraded from the 10,000-capacity John Peel tent just weeks before the festival.

Since then, Eilish has gone on to win multiple Brit and Grammy Awards for her debut album, When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go, and recently topped the charts with the follow-up, Happier Than Ever.

Last week, the star was in London for the premiere of the James Bond film, No Time To Die, for which she wrote the theme song.

Eavis, who made a point of watching Eilish at the side of the stage in 2019, said she "couldn't be happier" to welcome the star back to Worthy Farm.

The festival also posted its first line-up poster for 2022... featuring just one name.

Eilish will be 20 years and six months old when she hits the Pyramid stage next June - just three months older than Mark Hamilton of the Northern Irish band Ash when they headlined in 1997.

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