Coachella, the globally renowned music festival, returns this year, with weekend one kicking off on April 12. While there’s much to discuss regarding the festival, the slow ticket sales and last-minute headliners have certainly catapulted it into a vague realm. Nevertheless, festival-goers and virtual attendees alike are in for a ride, as the first week of Coachella 2024 concluded with deserving highlights and lows that we wish to sweep under the red carpet. In case you didn’t tune in for the live streaming, the first week of Coachella was scheduled with performances by Lana Del Rey, Doja Cat, No Doubt, Tyler, the Creator, Sabrina Carpenter, LE SSERAFIM, Ateez, The Rose, and Grimes.
The Highlights and Lows of Coachella 2024 Weekend 1
Shakira Makes a Surprise Appearance
The headliners of Coachella 2024 have been up for debate, with the majority voicing their concerns over the predictable artists, making it less exciting. As the lineup was often released in early January, the late schedule makes a call to be all over the place. If you have been in the know, there were rumours about Shakira headlining this year, but it didn’t take place due to several issues. The fans didn’t take it well, though. Luckily, Shakira is here to save the day as she made a surprise performance at Bizarrap’s set, singing “La Fuerte,” her latest collaboration with the DJ. It seems like a calling that she will headline next year.
No Doubt Reunion
If you’re a ’90s baby like us, this year Coachella takes it up a notch by assembling the hottest groups from the decade. No Doubt has reunited to perform their greatest hits on stage. Fans who watched No Doubt were in for a treat as the lead singer, Gwen Stefani, duetted with Olivia Rodrigo for “Bathwater.” The band kicked off their performance with “Hella Good” before playing renditions of other songs including “Sunday Morning,” “Ex-Girlfriend,” “It’s My Life,” “Different People,” “Hey Baby,” and “Total Hate ’95.”
Vampire Weekend x Paris Hilton à la Country
Vampire Weekend surprised the crowd during their set on Saturday by bringing Paris Hilton to the stage. The rock band played “Married in a Gold Rush” in an unlikely country version as Paris Hilton played Cornhole on stage. She admitted to the crowd, saying “I haven’t played this game since ‘The Simple Life,’” a reality show which she fronted with Nicole Richie.
LE SSERAFIM Drops a New Song
LE SSERAFIM brought their A-game during their 40-minute performance by belting out their hit songs and hardcore dance choreography. FYI, I won’t bring up the ongoing debate over their live vocals, which received mixed reviews. The girl group stunned festival-goers who sang along to their songs, including “Easy,” “Smarter,” and “Perfect Night.” They also teased a new English song called “1-800-hot-n-fun,” a certified banger song that will certainly get you grooving.
ATEEZ, The First K-pop Boy Band to Perform
ATEEZ made history as the first-ever K-pop band to perform at the festival. As expected, their electrifying performance garnered applause, with Billboard including them among the best moments of Coachella 2024 day one. In fact, it has been reported on social media that their fanchants and screams could be heard from other stages.
Doja Cat and The Dancing Yetis
Doja Cat proved everyone wrong as she headlined Coachella 2024 with a jaw-dropping performance that included several outfit changes and antics. In fact, we dare to say that she put a lot of effort into her performance with an out-of-this-world aesthetic. During the hour and a half show, Doja Cat made an entrance wearing a full hazmat suit before she took it off to reveal a bodysuit with thigh-length blonde hair as the yetis twerked to her song, “Demons.” As the second black woman to headline Coachella, Doja Cat mesmerised the audience with a full-out show, giving them an operatic performance with a gigantic skeleton dinosaur as she rapped to “WYM Freestyle,” and surprise appearances from fellow artists like 21 Savage, Teezo Touchdown, and A$AP Rocky.
Grimes Technical Error
I want to apologize for the technical issues with the show tonight. I wanted to come back rly strong and usually I always handle every aspect of my show myself – to save time this was one of the first times I've outsourced essential things like rekordbox bpm's and letting…
— 𝖦𝗋𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗌 ⏳ (@Grimezsz) April 14, 2024
Grimes graced the Sahara stage with her DJ setlist; unfortunately, a major technical error occurred, forcing her to provide explanations to the thousands in the crowd. Midway through her set, the tempo of the queued-up songs got screwed up, causing them to be double the tempo. Aside from being forced to restart her gear multiple times, she also let out a few screams and shrieks of frustration, which sounded relatable (and awkward). Here’s the real deal: technical issues are absolutely unavoidable for artists, and she managed it like a pro, but some people are definitely not having it. Grimes has issued a formal apology on her X account after her show ended. Let’s just say we hope it gets better for her next performance during the second weekend.
T-Pain’s Set at the Heineken House was Over Capacity
@themariahbones T-pain was such a fun set! He deserves the respect of a real stage @T-Pain #HeinekenHouse #Coachella #coachella2024 #coachelladay2 #tpain ♬ original sound – Mariah Bones | Notary Public
The long line at the Heineken House for T-Pain has left fans frustrated, as it was reported that there was only a single point of entry to the venue. As people rushed to enter, it became overcrowded to the extent that security had to remove attendees due to overcapacity issues. Fingers crossed that T-Pain gets a bigger stage for the second weekend.
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