Video: Jay-Z Covers Oasis at Glastonbury

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


mojo-photo-jayzglasto.jpgWhen it was announced that the legendary UK music festival had chosen rapper Jay-Z as a headliner, many fans were upset that a rock band wasn’t chosen like usual, and even Noel Gallagher of Oasis complained, saying “Jay-Z, I’m not f***ing having him at Glastonbury.” Well good old Jay-Z took lemons and made lemonade, opening his set Saturday night with a clip of Gallagher’s comments, then emerging to warble a cheeky cover of Oasis’ own “Wonderwall.” Despite Hova’s being a bit, as they say, “pitchy,” seemingly all of Glastonbury sang along:

As Pitchfork said, there’s a lot going on there, including angry mockery, a lighthearted wink, pure nostalgia, and straightforward enjoyment of the song itself; the performance’s nose-thumb origins didn’t prevent it from also being a traditional festival singalong moment. Even the Brits were impressed: The Times of London called Jay-Z’s appearance “a moment of real, euphoric, pop-culture history” and “the most thrilling headline act for more than a decade” (they’re probably talking about Radiohead’s legendary 1997 performance for a mud-drenched crowd). Go Jay-Z. Kind of makes you wonder why Coachella never booked him.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate