Glastonbury fans confused as BBC iPlayer omits Olivia Rodrigo’s Roe v Wade moment

Glastonbury viewers were left confused after BBC iPlayer omitted a protest song by Olivia Rodrigo and Lily Allen from its highlights coverage.

On Friday (June 24), the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Mississippi law banning abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy, overturning key precedents set by the 1973 decision in Roe vs. Wade.

During his Glastonbury performance on Saturday night (June 25), Rodrigo joined stars including Phoebe Bridgers and Billie Eilish to speak out against the ruling.

Through her performance on the festival’s Other Stage, the “driver’s license” singer invited Allen as a special guest for a performance of Allen’s 2009 hit “F*** You.”

Introducing the song, Rodrigo said: “I am devastated and terrified [by the recent ruling] and so many women and girls are going to die for this and I wanted to dedicate the next song to the five members of the Supreme Court who showed us at the end of the day that they really don’t give a shit about freedom.”

Standing next to Rodrigo, Allen was seen pointing his middle finger.

“We hate you guys!” Rodrigo said, before the couple launched onto the track full of expletives.

While the performance was removed from the BBC’s featured coverage on iPlayer, the video was uploaded to YouTube by the broadcaster.

In a statement delivered to the independenta BBC spokesman said: “The decision to edit out this section of the performance was made solely because of the strong language used throughout.

“There were no other factors involved in this decision.”

Previous cases of artists who criticized the Roe vs. Wade glitch have made their way to BBC television broadcasts and iPlayer video highlights.

Rodrigo’s set contained other instances of swearing. When it happened during the songs, as in “buenos 4 u”, it was censored for broadcast. However, an uncensored insult uttered by Rodrigo between songs went on air, prompting an apology from the BBC soon after.

It has been suggested that the sheer volume of profanity on “F*** You” made swearing impractical.

Nonetheless, the decision to remove the song from the full iPlayer stream drew some criticism on social media.

“BBC edited Olivia Rodrigo’s Glastonbury set very poorly to exclude her performance of ‘F*** You’ with Lily Allen…yeah, doesn’t look good given the message behind the performance,” one person wrote.

“I understand why @bbcglasto couldn’t really get a song called ‘F*** You’ on BBC One at 7:45pm,” another tweeted, “but it seems to mean we missed a special appearance by Lily Allen and a pretty glorious speech by Olivia Rodrigo on Roe v Wade and SCOTUS…”

the independent has contacted the BBC and representatives for Rodrigo and Allen for comment and clarification.

A recap of the highlights of day four at Glastonbury, including Greta Thunberg’s surprise appearance and Rodrigo’s duet with Allen, can be found here.

For all Glastonbury updates follow the independentLive blog here.