The Coachella music festival has launched itself yet again this weekend, its return heralded in the usual way: By us getting a lot of ad-ish press statements in our inboxes from various Coachella-adjacent companies, none of which are legally allowed to say the trademarked word “Coachella,” and thus have to talk at length about “Indio,” “festival season,” etc.
Over the last few years, though, there’s been a weird mutation in the world of Coachella headliners: The idea that, for every moderately famous musical artist on the bill, there’s a decent chance you’ll see a few more equally (and sometimes even more) famous performers showing up for their set as a “surprise guest.” It’s become a regular enough occurrence at this point that it’s paradoxically expected; give or take a Frank Ocean here or there—who’s headlining this Sunday, in his first live performance since 2017, and thus really doesn’t need the hype help—half the interest any particular artist sparks at this point is the question of who they might bring with.
Last night’s kick-off performances, headlined by Bad Bunny, were no different: Bad Bunny’s set included an appearance from Post Malone; meanwhile, a reunited set from Blink-182 could arguably be counted as a surprise all its own, given that it wasn’t added to the festival schedule until Wednesday of this week. The biggest surprise, though, probably has to go to DJ and producer Metro Boomin, who brought out The Weeknd during this set—surprising in so far as you, like us, presumably only think of The Weeknd as a serious television actor these days.
But don’t worry, Weeknd acting fans: The Dawn FM star’s drop-in contained at least one hefty reference to his upcoming HBO TV series The Idol. That came in the form of “Double Fantasy,” apparently written for the series, in which The Weeknd plays a “guru” who inserts himself into the life of a young starlet.
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No word yet on who the surprise guests at Saturday’s shows will be, as that is not how surprises work. BLACKPINK is set to headline.
