Update, April 6 at 12:01 p.m.: After reports that headliner Kanye West exited Coachella amid drama with his ex Kim Kardashian, fans began speculating who would take his spot. The Weeknd fans won. The “Out of Time†singer posted a revised lineup on the morning of April 6 that announced him as the Sunday headliner — along with Swedish House Mafia, who was originally billed with no set date. The artists collaborated in 2021 on “Moth to a Flame†and will join forces again on April 17 and 24. West reportedly planned a Coachella Sunday service in addition to his set, but neither the rapper nor the festival has mentioned the service. With Ye’s exit, Coachella’s return has been anything but conventional.
Original story follows.
It’s finally time to go back to the desert. Goldenvoice announced Coachella will return for 2022, debuting its full lineup for April 15–17 and 22–24. Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, and Ye (whom you may know as Kanye West) are set to headline the festival, which is back for the first time since 2019. Until recently, Rage Against the Machine and Travis Scott were expected to headline, having been set to top the bill of the 2020 festival, which was canceled because of COVID-19, alongside Frank Ocean, who’s now scheduled to return in 2023. Scott was reportedly nixed from the lineup in the wake of his November Astroworld performance, at which a crowd crush left ten dead and numerous injured. Coachella would have marked his first performance since the event, which has given way to hundreds of millions of dollars in legal challenges. Consequence has reported that Rage requested to be taken off the 2022 lineup — and that, up until days before the announcement, the festival had been scrambling for a third headliner. On top of it all, the festival still hasn’t avoided COVID-19 concerns, with the current Omicron variant prompting a slew of postponed and canceled performances.
Eilish is headlining Coachella for the first time, after performing there in 2019. She will be the youngest headliner in festival history, according to her Twitter. Ye returns after headlining in 2011 and staging a Sunday Service event at the festival in 2019. Per Billboard, another Sunday Service, in addition to Ye’s set, is also on the table. It will be Harry Styles’s first time performing in the desert, and Variety says Styles may be dropping new music before the festival kicks off. Swedish House Mafia was also announced as “returning to the desert,†although it was unclear whether they were headlining or not.