When Kanye West was announced as the Saturday night headliner for this year's Glastonbury, pretty much the entire music world stopped to discuss the Eavis family's plans. Unfortunately for them, the announcement wasn't exactly met with outcries of joy or excited ticket holders admitting they couldn't believe their luck. Now, Imma let those people finish, but Kanye could be one of the best Glastonbury headliners of all time. Seriously.
I'm not surprised that a number of people aren't happy. Kanye's (not-so-great) reputation precedes him, and he's more well-known for his outrageous comments than career-defining performances - but he's no fool. If we can all agree on anything, it's that Kanye takes himself very, very seriously, and he's not a man who's going to mess up the biggest performance of his career so far, at one of the most famous festivals in the world.
Don't believe me? Here's why he'll blow everyone away...
1. He's the most exciting recording artist in the world right now
With Yeezus, Kanye positioned himself as an artist who's leading the way. Kanye began creating the album in Paris, where he recruited a team of producers including Daft Punk, Gesaffelstein and Benji B, and layer-by-layer, they created one of the most interesting albums of the past decade. As the late, great Lou Reed stated: "He's really trying to raise the bar. No one's near doing what he's doing, it's not even on the same planet."
In recent months, Kanye's showcased a fashion collection at NYFW, spoke at Oxford, performed last-minute gig in Camden and left pretty much the entire nation asking "WTF?!" with that Brits performance. His upcoming album So Help Me God is shrouded in mystery, and you can never tell which Kanye you're going to get. Controversial, yes. Exciting? Absolutely.
2. Kanye's special guests could include everyone from Paul McCartney to Skepta
It's tradition for Glasto's headliners to bring on a guest or two, and usually, it's not too difficult to predict who's waiting in the wings. (Apart from that time Beyonce randomly introduced Tricky, what even was that?!) So who could Kanye have? Logically, he can take his pick from *deep breath*... Jay Z, Paul McCartney, Rihanna, Jamie Foxx, Adam Levine, Skepta, Lupe Fiasco, Chris Martin, Theophilus London and John Legend. And that's without any of the as-yet-unnamed stars who are on the new album.
3. His impressive back-catalogue guarantees an eclectic set list
With seven albums - eight including his collaboration with Jay Z - to his name, Kanye's got a lot of thinking to do before stepping foot on the Pyramid Stage. Will Bound 2 make the cut? Perhaps he'll follow Arctic Monkeys' lead and take the chance to smash through a rarely-played album track. And which of his many covers will make an appearance? So. Many. Questions.
4. The inevitable rant will be quite something (bear with me on this one)
When you forget about the drama and strip things back, Kanye's infamous speeches often have a few nuggets of wisdom hidden deep within them. He's not exactly a man of few words, and we can't see him passing the chance to tell over 100,000 festival-goers how he feels. Expect as much thought on this as the setlist. (Just keep it under 15 minutes please, Yeezy?)
5. Kim. Kardashian. At. Glasto. (Probably)
Like them or not, Kim and Kanye are the #worldsmosttalkedaboutcouple (Vogue said so). Kim is arguably the most famous woman in the world - she's basically the Glastonbury of celebrities. Two of pop culture's greatest phenomenons are about to come crashing together - the ultimate US reality TV star, and the good ol' British festival. Remember Dolly Parton's summary of the event? I can't wait to hear Kim's.
And if you don't like it...
It's not too late to return your ticket. Fans who purchased theirs in the October sale have until early April to decide whether or they want to keep it. So if Yeezy isn't your thing, it's not too late to hand your ticket back, take the cash and run. Kanye, I'll see you in June.