Every Headliner Ever at Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival
Written by djfrosty on January 10, 2023
Bad Bunny, BLACKPINK and Frank Ocean were announced as headliners for the 2023 iteration of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. The trio of acts are certainly history-making and, in the case of Ocean, long-anticipated, which makes it the perfect time to look back at Coachella’s many headliners throughout history.
Founded in 1999, the very first Coachella took place at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, Calif., with Beck, Tool and Rage Against the Machine topping the lineup. And for the next decade, the festival became a go-to destination for rock fans as the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys, Radiohead, Coldplay and The Cure delivered memorable headlining sets from the California desert.
By the early 2010s, hip-hop heavyweights had become synonymous with the festival, with Jay-Z and Kanye West each dominating a headlining slot in, respectively, 2010 and 2011. The following year brought together an all-star show for hip-hop heads led by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, who were joined by special guests Eminem, 50 Cent, Wiz Khalifa, Kendrick Lamar and a holograph of the late Tupac Shakur.
The tone of Coachella changed forever, though, in 2017 after Lady Gaga was named a headliner alongside Radiohead and Lamar. Mother Monster’s arrival to the Empire Polo Club attracted an entirely new type of festivalgoer, as Little Monsters flocked to the desert to witness a 90-minute spectacle that included hits across each of the superstar’s eras just months after she headlined the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show, as well as the debut of new song “The Cure” for the occasion.
The following spring, Beyoncé transformed Coachella into Beychella with a history-making set documented for her 2019 concert film Homecoming and its companion live album. In 2019, Ariana Grande took over for Arichella, even trotting out four-fifths of *NSYNC for a boy-band reunion years in the making. After being canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, Coachella came roaring back to life in 2022 thanks to headliners Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and Swedish House Mafia with The Weeknd.
Click through Billboard‘s gallery of past Coachella headliners below.