THE Daily Echo can today announce that Bestival's Sunday night headliner will be hip-hop super star Missy Elliott.

This is her only European date this year - and her first performance in the UK in nine years!

For Bestival organiser Rob da Bank it is a major coup as he has been trying to book her for years.

Missy Elliott said: “I'm very excited to be performing at Bestival this year! I can't wait to see all my fans I haven't seen in some time… new ones and my day one fans! We are gonna have a blast together! Bring your dancing outfits and kicks!”

Rob da Bank said: “Putting the final pieces together for the world’s most intricate jigsaw puzzle that is Bestival, I’m mighty proud to announce our Sunday headliner Missy Elliott...the epitome of hip-hop royalty, the first lady of party-starting club bangers and a downright legend. I cannot wait to watch the most successful female rap artist ever to Work It at Bestival 2015!”

The singer recently received global acclaim when she made a stunning surprise appearance during Katy Perry's Super Bowl halftime show. She performed a medley of three of her biggest hits, "Get Ur Freak On," "Work It" and "Lose Control".

But as Rob says, "she is not big on touring".

Rob revealed she turned him down six months ago but he didn't stop 'pestering' her!

Rob said:"I feel like the final part of the puzzle is starting to fall into place. I've been after Missy Elliott for years. She is the largest hip-hop artist ever- an amazing woman and with The Outcasts so popular last year - another hip-hop act, we know she will go down well. She balances well with the other acts like Underworld and Duran Duran and I just think it's a classic line-up.

"Six months ago she turned me down and I've been on her case - or her people's case, ever since! I kept up the anti and now this is the only show she is doing in Europe this year. She's not big on touring. At the SuperBowl in the US she totally rocked and owned that. That was a good barometer of what we can expect. Sunday night at Bestival is a massive night: We have The Jacksons on first - and we've just got the 90 minute set list come through. So we will have an amazing retro 90 minutes and then her final performance followed by fireworks ...so I'm really feeling this is going to be a special year."

Hailing from Portsmouth, Virginia, Missy Elliott is one of music’s most successful MCs, songwriters, and producers. She’s racked up five Grammy awards, one double platinum and four platinum albums, and over 166 awards from VMAs to MOBOs and beyond. With tight beats and sick flows, Missy is a one-woman hit machine, who has had pop music’s great’s including Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Beyoncé queueing up to work with her.

Her production innovation has had a huge impact on music globally, firing out guilt edged monsters by the truckload from The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly), Hot Boyz and Get Ur Freak On to Work It, Pass The Dutch and Lose Control the stamp of her influence can be heard loud and clear to this day.

She joins Underworld, Duran Duran and the Chemical Brothers to complete 2015s set of headliners.

Tickets can be purchased at ticketline.co.uk/bestival-tickets or by calling 0844 888 4410.

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