Elton John's epic Glastonbury 2023 debut saw the legendary singer perform to thousands at Worthy Farm and a record-breaking number of viewers at home. The Rocket Man singer's headline performance marked the final set at the festival this year, which ran from June 21 to June 25, and will go down as a moment in history as it was also the star's last-ever UK show.
The 76-year-old opened his two-hour set with Pinball Wizard and The Bitch is Back before introducing four guests to the stage, including Jacob Lusk, Stephen Sanchez, Brandon Flowers, and Rina Sawayama. You can read more about Elton's guests here.
And while an enormous crowd gathered to watch him on location in Somerset, millions tuned in at home to make sure they didn't miss a thing. In fact, Elton's headline set on Sunday night on BBC One received the biggest ever overnight audience for a Glastonbury set with a five-minute peak overnight audience of 7.6m and an average of 7.3 million.
Read more: Glastonbury 2023: Who were Elton John's surprise guests as he performs last ever UK show
The performance was also broadcast on BBC Radio 2, BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds. The broadcaster has also revealed that across the weekend, a record 21.6m people, over a third of the UK population, watched the BBC’s Glastonbury TV coverage with over 40 hours of linear programming available to audiences.
Director of Music, Lorna Clarke, said: "What an incredible way to end this year’s Glastonbury festival! Elton John’s set will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the most epic performances ever to light up the Pyramid Stage and was watched by a record 7.6 million people on BBC One.
"I’m so delighted the BBC and our superb teams were able to share every bit of the magic from Worthy Farm during the weekend with audiences at home. People can catch Elton John’s unmissable set and all our other content now on BBC Sounds and BBC iPlayer, which also has over 90 other sets from across the Glastonbury stages."
Elsewhere, Arctic Monkeys saw a record performance for a Friday night headline set - broadcast on BBC One for the first time - with a five-minute peak audience of 2.6m and an average of 1.5m. Audiences for Saturday’s headliner Guns N’ Roses on BBC Two peaked at 2.1m, with an average audience of 1m. And Lewis Capaldi's and Lizzo’s Pyramid Stage performances on Saturday had a peak BBC One audience peak 2.4m and average 2.3m viewers.
According to the BBC, The Legends programme with Yusuf/Cat Stevens on Sunday reached the biggest BBC Two audience this year with an overnight five-minute peak audience of 3m and an average of 2.3m, and the BBC One show with Rick Astley and Blondie had a 5 minute peak audience of 2.5m and an average of 2.1m. For more showbiz and television stories get our newsletter here.
