INDIO, CA (CelebrityAccess) — Korean pop artist Blackpink made history this weekend when they became the first all-Asian female group to headline the festival when they took the stage on Saturday night.
The group, which features Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa and Rosé, were featured on the festival’s main ‘Coachella’ stage at 9 PM, following an aerial drone show that drew on iconic images from the festival’s history.
For their set, Blackpink covered fan favorites such as “Kill This Love,” “How You Like That,” “Pretty Savage,” “Kick It” and “Whistle,” before each member of the group highlighted their solo talents with individual songs.
While this was their first time on the main stage, it wasn’t Blackpink’s first Coachella performance and the group appeared on the festival’s Sahara Stage in 2019.
“So, let me start off with, four years ago we were invited to perform here for you at Coachella at the Sahara tent and that made a mark in all of our hearts,” Rosé told the crowd during their main stage set. ”I must say, this is a dream come true. The reason all four of us are here is because of you.”
Other sets during the first week of the festival didn’t go as smoothly. During Bad Bunny’s headlining set on Friday night, he brought out fellow rapper Post Malone for a special guest appearance, but the moment was plagued by technical issues that included malfunctioning microphones and a missing audio channel for Malone’s guitar.
Frank Ocean also appeared at Coachella, his first return to the stage in more than half a decade. However, the set, which closed out the main stage on Sunday night, started late and was forced to end early when it ran up against the festival’s midnight curfew.
The set also appeared to suffer from some technical issues with Ocean repeatedly talking to a member of the production team and a ten-minute pause during which a DJ took up the slack.
During a pause in the music, Ocean himself described the set as ‘chaotic’ and explained that the DJ interlude was included as an homage to his experience in the club scene where he often encountered up-and-coming DJs.
It’s become such a part of my practice now with my new weekly thing on the radio that we’ve been doing, so its good that it’s not always about me,” he told the audience.
The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival returns next weekend for round 2.
