This year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival made history. Coachella has been held annually since 1999 in Coachella Valley, Indio, California, with thousands of people setting up camp to watch their favorite artists perform live. Although it’s an annual festival, this year’s Coachella was special. With headliners Lady Gaga, Green Day, Post Malone and Travis Scott, along with other amazing artists breaking through, the three day festival that spans two weekends in April gained mass social media attention for performances that changed lives.

Day One

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga headlined the first day of the weekend, setting high standards for the rest of the weekend. Her almost two hour set began with “Bloody Mary” on a victorian stage, with her in a HUGE, red, gothic dress. Immediately, the performance embodied Gaga to the core.

Gaga performed some of her most famous songs, such as “Paparazzi,” “Alejandro,” “Judas,” “Poker Face,” along with songs off of her most recent album, “Mayhem.” She ended the night with “Bad Romance,” leaving fans ecstatic for day two.

The performance was rated by various media outlets, such as Vanity, Billboard, Rolling Stone, and more, all giving her a five star rating, making Gaga’s performance one of the highest rated performances of Coachella History.

Benson Boone

Also on day one, Benson Boone, a relatively newer artist, put on a stellar show, paying homage to late Freddie Mercury from Queen. He began the memorial by playing the intro to “Bohemian Rhapsody” on the piano, before flipping off of it.

Strutting across the stage, he sang the classic song, and then to make it even more iconic, he brought out Brian May, Queen’s lead guitarist. This was Brian May’s first comeback since he had a stroke, which made the performance even more special.

Benson Boone’s brave performance of such a daring song, as well as his hype stage presence made him a staple of day one.

Day Two

Green Day

The headliner for day two was Green Day, a band formed in the late 80’s. This year was the band’s first time performing for Coachella, and they took the band’s punk theme to the next level.

The band performed songs ranging their entire discography, including “Jesus of Suburbia,” where they changed the lyric “runnin’ away from pain when you’ve been victimized,” to “runnin’ away from pain like the kids from Palestine,” creating a stance on the Israel and Palestine war currently happening. This was very controversial, obviously, but the band is punk, so they stayed true to the political movement.

Charli XCX

Charli XCX brought party-girl energy to Coachella. After her hit album “BRAT” came out last summer, the popstar has gained recognition for the messy, fun aesthetic she has portrayed, making no change at Coachella.

During her set, she brought out Lorde, who she previously had a rivalry with before the remix of her song “Girl, so confusing” came out. Luckily, they’re friends again and performed “Girl, so confusing featuring lorde” at Coachella. The performance was raw and intimate and the crowd was living for the reuniting of the two singers.

Not only did she bring out Lorde, she brought out Troye Sivan for “Talk talk featuring troye sivan.” Charli XCX and Sivan performed together in sync, doing body rolls and cat walking down the stage of Coachella. The performance was fierce and matched the song perfectly.

Then, she brought out Billie Eilish for “Guess featuring billie eilish” which made the crowd go wild. She also brought out Addison Rae during weekend two for “Von dutch a.g. cook remix featuring addison rae.”

To complete her set, she debuted a new “summer”— ending the BRAT era. This summer, she wants fans around the world to have their own summer, and promoted other artists albums that are releasing this summer, such as Lorde, Ethel Cain, and more.

Clairo

Indie artist Clairo also performed at Coachella this year. First performing on the Coachella stage in 2019, she came back this year and brought the same, mesmerizing aura. She sang songs off of new and old albums, but one of the main highlights of her performance was a surprise speech from Senator Bernie Sanders.

Bernie Sanders spoke to the crowd to urge them to take a stand against the current political state in the United States. Sanders said “The future of what happens to America is dependent upon your generation,” and that it is important for the young generation to be politically active.

Day Three

Megan Thee Stallion

On day three, Megan Thee Stallion took the breath away from her fans… as she always does. With her highly choreographed, beautiful set, the audience was hyped up for her high-energy performance.

But Megan doesn’t stop there. She brought out surprise guests Queen Latifah, Victoria Monet, and Ciara to support her on stage. Although her set was cut short because of her accidentally going over her set time, her performance was a memorable one.

Conclusion

Coachella this year was crazy. With performances from so many different artists, surprise guests, political movements, and more, this year set a new standard for Coachella.