Adele heaps praise on ‘hard working and beautiful’ Stormzy after Glasto set

Adele has showered Stormzy with praise after his headline set at Glastonbury.

The Croydon-born grime artist became the first black British solo artist to headline the famous festival when he took to the Pyramid Stage on Friday night.

The 25-year-old delivered a powerful and at times political performance, taking to the stage in a stab vest embellished with a Union flag, an apparent nod to London’s knife crime epidemic.

Adele wrote on Instagram: “I have love in abundance for this strong, sweet and honest man. I’m so proud of him, Stormzy just monumentally headlined Glastonbury in his own right with one album!!

“The first Grime artist ever to do so, you respected everyone that opened the door for you whilst opening a huge one yourself.

“You and your team are all so good, hard working and beautiful and deserve everything that comes your way.

“Its been a joy to watch you unfold at lightning speed with absolute grace. It’s actually crazy what you’ve done in less than 3 years, well done darling x

“Well done Emily Eavis too, Glasto couldn’t be in a better pair of hands!”

A spokeswoman for the BBC said the audience for Stormzy’s set, which was broadcast on BBC Two, peaked at 1.5 million.

“The BBC will broadcast over 100 performances from Glastonbury 2019 and Stormzy’s Friday headline performance received a hugely positive response from the audience, peaking at 1.5m views on BBC Two before digital and catch up is included. There were also 380,000 BBC iPlayer requests to watch Stormzy’s set live.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the set will “go down in our country’s cultural history”.

He said: “Tonight @Stormzy made history by being the first black solo British headliner at Glastonbury.

“The performance was political, iconic and the ballet was beautifully powerful. It won’t just go down in Glastonbury history – it’ll go down in our country’s cultural history. #Glasto2019.

Ed Sheeran said Stormzy, real name Michael Omari, was “an inspiration to many”.

Alongside a picture of the rapper on stage, the singer-songwriter wrote: “First black British solo artist to headline Glastonbury, second youngest to ever headline, and just an inspiration to so many.

“This is just the start, congrats big Mike, looking forward to see you do more achievements like this”

Writing on his Instagram story, Canadian rapper Drake, himself a fan of the British grime scene, said: “@Stormzy headlining Glastonbury and that. Madness congrats.”

Stormzy’s girlfriend, TV presenter Maya Jama, tweeted: “ICONICCCCCCCC.”

Alongside a picture of Stormzy, Tottenham-born rapper Wretch 32 tweeted: “Champions league the league of champions.”

Hip-hop star Konan, another from the London grime scene, said: “This crazy man the feeling I have in my chest right now watching this I have to watch this again.”

Grime star Giggs shared a picture of Stormzy’s performance to Instagram.

And Tottenham Labour MP David Lammy praised Stormzy for sampling a speech he had given about black men and the justice system.

He tweeted: “@stormzy using his headline spot at #glastonburyfestival2019 to speak out about the injustice of young black kids being criminalised in a biased and disproportionate justice system. Humbled and inspired that he sampled my speech. Salute #Merky.”