Coachella, whether you love it or hate it, you have to admit that the best part about this festival, aside from who is wearing what, are the artists that perform. This year artists like Lana Del Rey, Tyler the Creator and Doja Cat are headlining with additional sets with artists like J Balvin, Peso Pluma, Ice Spice, Lil Uzi Vert, Sabrina Carpenter and so much more. However, this article is only going to cover the headliners and their performances.
To start, Del Rey arrived in a beautiful blue dress strolling down the aisle in a motorcycle. As she approached the stage the song “Gangsta,” by Kehlani played before transitioning into Del rey’s song “Jealous Girl.” Del Rey’s setlist contained popular songs such as “West Coast,” “Doin’ Time,” “Summertime Sadness,” “Pretty When You Cry,” “Born To Die” and “Young and Beautiful.” Although these are Del Rey’s most popular songs, I couldn’t help but fangirl as I viewed clips of her singing all over YouTube and TikTok. Sometimes artists sound completely different than they do in the recorded songs, but Del Rey doesn’t, her voice is just as graceful and angelic as it is in the recorded studio version. Another person who sounds just as they do in their released music is Billie Eilish who performed two songs with Del Rey: “Video Games” and “Ocean Eyes.” After listening to them together, I couldn’t believe how well their voices paired with each other. They both contain a high yet graceful angelic tone and they both sound very similar.
Aside from Del Rey, Tyler the Creator performed as well. Unlike Del Rey, Tyler had more of an entertaining set. The background changed depending on the song and it incorporated many flames and LED lights. His most popular songs performed were “Running Out Of Time,” “She,” “IFHY,” “EARFQUAKE” and “New Magic Wand.” Right off the bat, one song that caught my interest the most was “New Magic Wand.” When Tyler plays this song, he usually goes all out and tries to get the crowd very hype which is exactly the same energy he carried into Coachella. After watching many videos of this performance, I can very well say I wish I was there. Tyler had many flashing lights and flames going up which paired very well with the hecticness and craziness of this song. Another song I was very pleased with was “IFHY,” from all the videos surfacing around social media, you can definitely tell he had a fun time singing this song. He expressed the same emotions recorded through the song in person, and the background definitely captured the shift of emotion in the song based on the tempo change.
Lastly, Doja Cat played her popular songs like “Tia Tamera,” “Need To Know,” “Streets,” “Agora Hills,” “Ain’t Sh*t” and “Paint The Town Red.” Right off the bat, the first song that intrigued me the most was “Need To Know.” I used to listen to this song all the time, so I was very curious to see if it sounded the same live, and after some research, I found that Doja sang the song the exact same. She sounds exactly like the studio version, and it was so cool to see the outfits she was wearing. I also really admired how she incorporated background dancers as well as LEDs which helped enhance her performance.
Overall, I think all the artists did an amazing job, and they were truly authentic with their performance and brought out all the emotions the songs were supposed to contain.
