After six years, neo-soul’s most enigmatic artist, Frank Ocean, made his performance come-back on one of the world’s largest stages: the 2023 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. When the lineup dropped, all attention turned to Frank Ocean. However, the highly anticipated Sunday night headliner is now under public fire, and the heat is on. By the end of weekend one, all attention remains on Frank as fans recap and try to understand just why and how his set so brutally fell apart.
Members of Ocean’s cult following arrived at the festival as early as 9:00 A.M., where they subjected themselves to brutal heat for three hours until the doors opened at noon. Once in, committed fans rushed the barricade to secure unbeatable views, where they waited for an additional 11 hours. I may be a Coachella virgin, but if I had to guess, standing for up to fourteen hours in the middle of the sun-struck desert for an expensive ticket price requires passion, dedication, and the promise of one hell of a performance.
The first disappointment struck when, just mere hours before his scheduled set time, Youtube removed Ocean’s set from their Coachella livestream. Fans streaming from home, were forced to turn to the shaky quality of audience members’ livestreams. One such audience member, Instagram user @Morgandoesntcare, went viral when Reddit reposted her livestream, garnering hundreds of thousands of viewers. Her footage didn’t just capture Ocean’s performance, however; Morgan describes recording the hour-long wait for his set, during which she kept things positive, offering “Hey, they’re still setting up the stage.”
But more anxious fans weren’t having it, as they fired back things like “shut up” and “‘k*ll yourself.” While the set change was prolonged, the audience watched in confusion as a swarm of set workers frantically worked to install a projection screen on the stage, as per Ocean’s request. Panicked fans speculated as to whether or not the headliner would even perform.
As was later confirmed by sources to Variety and reports in Rolling Stone and TMZ, “an elaborate stage production involving an ice rink and a battery of skaters–who would apparently skate around Ocean and the band during their set–was constructed, rehearsed for several days and ready to go, but abruptly called off on Sunday afternoon, after the festival was already under way.”
According to TMZ, Ocean’s set change was the result of an ankle injury sustained in the week leading up to his performance–though he decided only at the last minute, after the festival doors had opened that Sunday, that he didn’t want any of it. As a result, festival-goers waited an additional hour as “Coachella had to deconstruct the approved stage (that had been planned and signed off on for months in advance) and melt the entire ice rink and then set it up how Frank decided [that day].”
At 11:00 P.M., Ocean finally took the stage, where dim lighting and scaffolding obstructed the audience’s view of him. Once on stage, the artist remained seated for the majority of his performance, though it’s unclear if this can be attributed to an injury or his notoriously laid-back vibe. Between his hood, his tendency to face the back of the stage, and his conciliation behind a large video screen projection, Ocean barely acknowledged the audience—“he didn’t acknowledge the delay once.” When not seated, he lethargically walked around, but never fully took center stage.
Truthfully, Ocean’s set was more of “a listening party” than a performance, as the artist, at times with no microphone in hand, made no effort to conceal the fact that he was lip-syncing pre-recorded tracks. There were moments when he couldn’t even bring himself to mouth the words. The more impressive performance came from Ocean’s security guard, who blew up on TikTok for “shaking ass” during DJ Crystal Mess’ set.
While Ocean’s performance featured reworked versions of “White Ferrari” and “Novacane,” he further let fans down by cranking out unrecognizable songs as opposed to hits like “Thinking Bout You.” Said tracks were also followed by awkward silences, “eliminating any sense of flow and giving the impression that he was just winging it.” His lack of flow only made matters worse when, at 12:22 p.m., Frank ended the show with a lack-luster one-liner: “Guys I’m being told it’s curfew, so that’s the end of the show.” With that, the performance that fans had waited six years and eleven hours for, and that lasted a whopping thirty-to-sixty minutes, met its end.
Ocean’s closing remark constituted the second time he addressed the crowd, the first being when he took a brief intermission to honor his late brother, Ryan Bereux. Clips of his speech flooded the media, capturing an emotionally pained and heartfelt explanation of why he chose to play Coachella:
“I want to talk about why I’m here…I would always end up here and one of my fondest memories is watching Rae Sremmurd…with my brother…and we just dancing in that tent to their music and I know he would have been excited to be here with all of us and I want to say thank you for the support and the ears and the love overall.”
Many are acknowledging Ocean’s grieving state, commenting that he didn’t seem ready to return to the stage. Regardless, fans and the Coachella organization itself remain upset by what they witnessed. After speaking with sources about what transpired with Ocean’s performance, Festive Owl tweeted that “‘it just didn’t seem like he wanted to be there but [was] obligated to be. Everything (including him) fell apart last minute. Don’t expect to see any coverage from the festival about the set. Something that is unprecedented in the history of Coachella. The relationship [between Ocean and Coachella] is not in a good place right now.”
With fans exiting in the midst and during the abrupt end of the set, the media buzzing with slander, and Coachella possibly feuding with its most anticipated headliner, it’s no surprise that Frank Ocean has withdrawn from weekend two on account of his injury.