Lindsay Coulson | Writer
February 9, 2023
Its Coachella season. Let’s start with day number one: Friday. Headlining April 14 and 21 is Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny. Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio’s first breakthrough was in 2018 when he featured on Cardi B’s hit song “I Like It.” Since 2018, Bad Bunny has released five studio albums, one with J Balvin. However, Bad Bunny’s most remarkable accomplishment has to be helping Spanish-language music gain popularity. Various sources like Rolling Stone, Variety, and Billboard have praised Bad Bunny’s concerts for their electricity and performance. Among the other 54 artists playing on Friday, there are a few that stand out to me. MUNA is a queer band that exceeds regular pop music. Their self-titled album, released in the middle of 2022, has done spectacularly well according to critics. TV Girl, the indie pop band that blew up on Tik Tok, secured a spot playing Coachella. Surprisingly, Becky G will also be playing at Coachella. Best known for her 2014 hit “Shower”, the artist now makes primarily Spanish-language music.
On Saturday, April 15 and 22, BLACKPINK is headlining. BLACKPINK is a girl band created by Jisoo, Jennie, Rose, and Lisa. They are the most famous girl group in the world that creates K-Pop music. They have broken many records including becoming the first Korean females to enter the Billboard Emerging Artists Chart and setting two Guinness World Records. Junior Raegan Perkins claims her “favorite band is BLACKPINK! It’s inspiring to watch an all-female band headline at my favorite festival.” Other bands worth watching on this day include boygenius, Charli XCX, Labrinth, Snail Mail, Ethel Cain, and Destroy Boys. Boygenius is another all-girl supergroup consisting of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker. Their debut album will be released on March 31, luckily before the festival takes place. Sophomore Olivia Blackwell told me, “I first had suspicions boygenius was going to come out with new music when I saw that they’d be performing at Coachella. And I was right!” Charli XCX is an iconic British pop star with an amazing stage presence. Labrinth is best known for his work in the TV show Euphoria. He sang on and wrote a song with Zendaya for the show called “All for Us.” Also, Ethel Cain is a rising alternative artist that I was delighted to see on the list. Ethel Cain is best known for her song subjects that an average artist would be afraid to touch on such as cannibalism, religious trauma, abuse, and death.
Sunday’s headliner is Frank Ocean on April 16 and 23. The singer was supposed to headline the festival in 2020, however, the outbreak of COVID unfortunately postponed Frank Ocean’s performance. This will be his first performance since 2017. It seemed Frank Ocean was done with music since he hasn’t had any new songs or even features since 2020, but this festival is a chance to prove these rumors wrong. Also playing on Sunday will be Bjork, Dominic Fike, Willow, and Alex G. First, Bjork is an electronic/pop artist that has been crafting her solo music since 1993. She has gained many accomplishments over the years being named in Time’s 100 most influential people in the world and Rolling Stone’s world’s best singers and songwriters list. Similar to Labrinth, Dominic Fike is also well known for his work on Euphoria however for acting and not music. Willow, the child of Will Smith, is an amazing singer that delivers an incredible live performance. Lastly, Alex G will also be performing on Sunday. Alex G writes indie rock/folk music. You might have heard of him from Tik Tok, as some of his songs have “blown up” on that platform.
From far away, the Coachella lineup might look a little disappointing, but when taking a closer look there are plenty of artists to be excited about.
Leave a Reply