This year’s Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival was filled with not only jaw-dropping performances but also several show-stopping, unexpected guests. The festival was inundated with performances by stars such as Benson Boone, Charli xcx, Lady Gaga, Green Day and Clairo.
In Boone’s performance, he sang a rendition of “Bohemian Rhapsody” and even brought out former Queen guitarist Brian May. The crowd, however, seemed to neglect the rock legend’s surprise appearance. In response, Boone brought out a cardboard cutout of May for the second weekend’s crowd. He sang his hits such as “Beautiful Things” and debuted a new song called “Mystical Magical,” which has since gone viral on TikTok for its lyrics about “moonbeam ice cream.” Boone topped off his performances by doing his signature backflips.
Charli xcx gave an intense performance filled with flashing lights and all the hits from her latest album BRAT, including “Von dutch,” “360” and “365.” She also brought out her fair share of special guests, including Troye Sivan for a duet of “Talk Talk” and Lorde for a performance of the infamous “Girl, so confusing.” She ended her set with a message promoting other artists this summer, which appeared to signal the conclusion of “Brat summer.” Instead, she suggested an “Ethel Cain summer” or a “HAIM summer,” among many others, for the upcoming season.
Coming off of her March album MAYHEM, Lady Gaga shocked the crowd with a mind-blowing 90-minute performance consisting of songs from the new album as well as many of her classics. For the first time, she sang songs like “How Bad Do U Want Me,” which she did while dressed in a marching band outfit, and “Zombieboy,” where she danced with a skeleton. She performed a mashup of her hits “Bloody Mary,” “Abracadabra” and “Judas,” which proved to be a huge crowd-pleaser. Her performance helped stoke excitement for her upcoming tour, The Mayhem Ball, which is set to begin this summer.
Green Day performed as a headliner and gave a politically-charged performance. The band changed the lyrics to several of their songs to reference the current political state of the world. In “Jesus of Suburbia” they changed the line “Running away from pain when you’ve been victimized” to “Running away from pain like the kids from Palestine,” and they changed the lyrics of “American Idiot” to poke fun at Trump supporters, saying they weren’t a part of the “MAGA agenda.” Clairo took a political stance as well by having Bernie Sanders introduce her set. Sanders took the time to bring up prominent issues such as climate change and told the younger generation to continue fighting. Her set was incredibly captivating, and she sang versions of her hits including “Bags” and “Add Up My Love.”
