Jay-Z wins over doubters at Glastonbury

By Golnar Motevalli

GLASTONBURY, England (Reuters Life!) - The tents are packed up and most of the 140,000 music lovers have made their weary way home, but memories of this year's Glastonbury festival, and its headline act Jay-Z, are likely to linger.

The choice of the U.S. rapper to perform on the main stage at a festival best known for its guitar-based rock acts was widely criticized, and Oasis's Noel Gallagher riled the musician by saying the organizers were wrong to pick him.

Jay-Z's response was emphatic.

He opened his show with a film using Gallagher's now infamous comments and a montage of clips parodying him, before launching into an acoustic rendition of one of Oasis's biggest hits: "Wonderwall". Most fans and critics were impressed.

"His performance will go down in Glastonbury history," wrote the Independent in a Monday review of the festival.

Rather than being booed off stage as some predicted, "both audience and artist rose to the occasion and turned in a moment of real, euphoric, pop-culture history," added the Times.

The Guardian concluded: "It's brilliantly staged, utterly thrilling and it makes Gallagher look a bit of a berk."

The Daily Mirror tabloid, however, described his performance as dull.