Coachella 2023 was a rollercoaster ride — at least as far as the headliners were concerned. After Frank Ocean was announced for the 2023 edition of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival even before the 2022 fest took place, Bad Bunny and BLACKPINK rounded out the slate of headliners upon the lineup announcement earlier this year. Then, an abrupt change between the first and second weekend of the fest: Ocean pulled out of the latter due to an ankle injury, with Blink-182 and the trio of Skrillex, Four Tet and Fred Again.. instead closing out the main stage.
After months of anticipation, Coachella 2023 is in the rearview. Naturally, it’s time to start wondering who will top the 2024 lineup.
We’ve got a full year until Coachella 2024 and roughly nine months until its lineup is unveiled, but we can start daydreaming about which A-listers could possibly be en route to the desert in April 2024. These 10 artists could feasibly top next year’s lineup, thanks to a mix of star status, recent commercial wins and/or clues that new music is in the works. For the sake of simplicity, this list doesn’t include any past Coachella headliners who are currently active, like Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd or Drake — so while Beychella Part II would be welcomed by all far and wide, we’re only thinking of artists who would be making their debuts as Coachella headliners, which is often the case for these bookings anyway.
So who are some names to keep in mind for 2024? Here’s a preliminary list of A-listers who would headline next year’s Coachella:
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Rihanna
After rocking the Super Bowl halftime show in 2023, could Rihanna finally be headed to the desert as a Coachella headliner in 2024? Rih was heavily rumored to top the 2023 festival lineup in the spot that ultimately went to BLACKPINK, and perhaps the baby bump that she revealed during her Super Bowl LVII extravaganza last February can help explain why.
Rihanna is about to become a mother of two, but not much is otherwise known about her next 12 months – including any timetable for the release of new music, after she issued a pair of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack cuts late last year, as well as any non-Super Bowl shows planned. Anytime she wants to headline the fest, Coachella will presumably be happy to have her; we’ll see whether or not the Navy can find love in a hopeless place in 2024.
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Dua Lipa
“I gotta get out the studio more and see some sunlight,” Dua Lipa wrote on social media in February – a good indication that new music from the UK pop star, and perhaps the follow-up to her 2020 sophomore album Future Nostalgia, are very much in the works. Whenever Lipa does return, she’ll be able to add her new music to an arsenal of hits, spread out across her two studio albums (“Don’t Start Now,” “Levitating,” “New Rules”) and one-off collaborations (“Cold Heart” with Elton John, “One Kiss” with Calvin Harris).
If Lipa’s LP3 is ready to roll by this time next year, she would fit into the mold of recent headliners like Ariana Grande, Harry Styles and BLACKPINK – ultra-cool A-listers with new material to promote and/or premiere at Coachella. The shortlist of potential pop headliners at Coachella should undoubtedly include her name.
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SZA
The artist behind the biggest song in the country — which hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 after eight weeks in the runner-up spot — is on a hot streak that extends far beyond “Kill Bill.” SZA’s long-awaited sophomore album SOS has been one of the biggest albums of the year thus far and has been showered with critical acclaim, setting up a potential awards-season run pushing into 2024.
The success of SOS has also pushed SZA into arena-headliner territory, as her tour in support of the album has added more dates due to high demand. Headlining Coachella would be the ultimate victory lap for a singular artist who has long been beloved by R&B fans, but has recently leveled up her commercial profile in every conceivable way.
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Doja Cat
At the 2022 edition of Coachella, Ye backed out as the Sunday night headliner, and Swedish House Mafia with special guest The Weeknd shifted into the empty space at the top of the bill. Before the replacement became official, however, some fans pointed to another potential headliner already scheduled for the main stage on Sunday: Why not Doja Cat? After all, her 2021 album Planet Her spun off five top 20 Hot 100 hits, in addition to previous smashes like “Say So” and “Streets”; furthermore, Doja is a force of personality, and although she hasn’t been in the spotlight for too many years, she commands its presence.
Since Coachella 2022, Doja Cat has earned another top 10 entry with the Elvis soundtrack single “Vegas,” and hopped on hits with Post Malone and SZA. If she releases the follow-up to Planet Her before the end of the year, it will be one of the most highly anticipated albums of 2023. And a Coachella 2024 headlining booking would be a slam dunk, for both Doja Cat and the festival itself.
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Olivia Rodrigo
Olivia Rodrigo’s 2021 debut album, Sour, became such a commercial triumph that her sophomore LP, whenever it arrives, will be greeted with feverish enthusiasm. That’s why the Grammy winner for best new artist could headline Coachella next year even with a limited catalog: Rodrigo has a finite number of released songs, but everyone in a headliner crowd would know them all by heart, from “Drivers License” to “good 4 u” to “Deja Vu” to whatever she deems to release next.
Consider a potential Rodrigo booking in 2024 similar to Billie Eilish’s headlining gig at Coachella in 2022: a young superstar with a sky-high approval rating, running through the ubiquitous hits and beloved album cuts that recently made her a household name. And as a nod to the festival’s rock roots, maybe Veruca Salt can join Rodrigo for her cover of “Seether,” too!
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Cardi B
A few weeks ago, Cardi B celebrated the five-year anniversary of the release of her 2018 debut album, Invasion of Privacy… as well as the five-year anniversary of fans asking her when the follow-up will finally arrive. It’s hard to blame them: Invasion of Privacy remains one of the most cohesive, engrossing hip-hop debuts in recent memory, featuring No. 1 hits like “Bodak Yellow” and “I Like It.” While the wait continues for Album No. 2, the rap superstar has been able to tide fans over with chart-topping one-off singles like “WAP” with Megan Thee Stallion and “Up.”
If a sophomore LP materializes for Cardi B in the next 12 months, expect her name to show up in the Coachella Possibility conversation. Honestly, it could show up even if an album doesn’t arrive — such is her continued, all-encompassing appeal.
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Shakira
This year, Coachella made history by booking Bad Bunny, its first headliner who records predominantly Spanish-language music. The festival should consider giving future opportunities to Latin music artists as well — and who better to lead the potential 2024 headliners than Shakira, an international superstar currently experiencing a renaissance near the top of the Hot 100?
Shakira could have headlined any recent iteration of Coachella, thanks to her decades-long track record of hits. But in 2023, the Colombian star has returned to mainstream pop prominence with a pair of top 10 singles, thanks to her fiery Bizarrap team-up “BZRP Music Sessions, Vol. 53” and her Karol G collaboration “TQG,” which peaked at Nos. 9 and 7 on the Hot 100, respectively. Although Shakira’s relevance within the Latin pop community has never flagged, that one-two punch has returned her to the U.S. mainstream in exciting fashion — and a Coachella slot could punctuate that run.
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Miley Cyrus
Speaking of a veteran star coming off a rejuvenating hit: Miley Cyrus scored the biggest smash of her career earlier this year when “Flowers,” the lead single to her Endless Summer Vacation album, logged eight nonconsecutive weeks at the top of the Hot 100. In the past, Cyrus has headlined festivals like Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits thanks to a slew of past hits and audacious stage persona — could she head to Indio next year armed with her longest-running chart-topper yet?
Cyrus has yet to announce a tour in support of Endless Summer Vacation, so we’ll see how exactly she plans to support her latest full-length on the road. If she ends up snagging a Coachella ’24 headlining slot, though, expect the set to become one of the more must-see (and potentially star-studded) performances of the festival.
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BTS Members & Friends
A proper BTS headlining set at next year’s Coachella is going to hit an obvious roadblock: the mandatory military service required of their members, which has already halted larger group activities for the time being. While members have embarked on solo projects and performances over the past year, a full-on reunion isn’t likely until at the very least 2025, based on the members’ own comments on the matter.
Maybe that precludes BTS from having a presence at next year’s Coachella… or maybe the members who can perform at the 2024 festival get creative, with a one-of-a-kind set that functions as both a showcase to recent solo endeavors and a stopgap salute to ARMY before a globe-conquering group return. Imagine a headlining set featuring BTS members playing their solo material off of each other, special guests arriving to deliver features, and a few see-you-soon performances of the collective’s biggest hits to date. That type of show is unlikely at this moment, but it would also be the ultimate care package to fans if they can pull it off.
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Taylor Swift
I mean… this works all too well, right? The superstar behind the most in-demand tour of 2023, capping things off with her Coachella debut in 2024? The festival constantly wants to one-up its collection of headliners, and after a blockbuster trio in 2023, no artist would raise the stakes quite like Taylor Swift would as a 2024 bill-topper.
Swift has long favored headlining tours over festival appearances, and this year is no exception with her Eras stadium run. So, no, Taylorchella isn’t likely for 2024. But we can dream.
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