Jay-Z saves Brit music festival with boost in tix sales

Jay-Z, flaunted his flag-flying American supremacy in front of an audience of thousands at last weekend's Glastonbury Festival in England.
So this year, when it was announced that American rapper Jay-Z would top the Glasto bill, Oasis's own mouthy mouthpiece Noel Gallagher was none too thrilled. Noel even went so far as to publicly blame Jigga for Glastonbury 2008's unusually low ticket sales.

Glastonbury is Britain's biggest summer rockfest, and it's usually headlined by popular limey rock bands like Coldplay, Muse, Radiohead, and Oasis.
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If you break it, people ain't gonna go," the famously cantankerous Britpopper complained to the BBC in one of his typically brazen interviews. "I'm sorry, but Jay-Z? No chance. I'm not having hip-hop at Glastonbury. No way. No. It's wrong."

Well, apparently 140,000 or so festivalgoers disagreed with Noel and showed up for the headlining Hova...who kicked off his Glastonbury set in a most cheeky fashion by performing Oasis's "Wonderwall" acoustic, dressed in a Gallagher-esque anorak, while a parody film featuring Noel's nasty comments screened behind him. The crowd exploded, according to The London Times, which reported: "Both audience and artist rose to the occasion and turned in a moment of real, euphoric, pop-culture history."

"[Jay-Z's] performance will go down in Glastonbury history," British paper The Independent also declared, while The Guardian concurred: "It's brilliantly staged, utterly thrilling, and it makes Gallagher look a bit of a berk."
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