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Almost a decade ago, in 2017, Lady Gaga headlined Coachella — but not on purpose. The superstar stepped in to replace Beyoncé, who had then-just revealed her pregnancy to the public. Beyoncé returned to headline the festival in 2018 but tonight, on the first night of Coachella 2025, it was Gaga’s turn. And this time, everything was intentional.
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On Friday, April 11, Gaga celebrated “Mayhem In the Desert” — as her own on-site merchandise pop-up teased — with a spellbinding and ominous set. Titled “The Art Of Personal Chaos,” the two-hour show may have been disguised as a concert, but what took place was nothing short of a carefully crafted commentary on fame and performance – and the toll of keeping both up.Or, as two Gagas from different eras said on screens bookending the stage, staring at one another but speaking to the masses: “This is the manifesto of mayhem.”
It’s a fitting concept for a headlining show that follows an album of the same name; Gaga’s Mayhem arrived in March and debuted atop the Billboard 200. And for an artist like Lady Gaga, it’s a concept that is rich in inspiration. It seems she was so inspired, in fact, that the only way to clearly organize and present her ideas was through five distinct acts, including an anticipated finale — but all seamlessly woven together thanks to stunning and challenging choreography from Parris Goebel. And, of course, Gaga’s catalog.
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Her set naturally leaned heavy on new matieral — especially since her Coachella gigs across the festival’s two weekends unofficially kick-off her upcoming The Mayhem Ball tour. But the way in which Gaga reimagined or perhaps recontextualized some of her older hits made them feel impressively fresh and forced fans to reexamine the idea of fame – all the while spotlighting Gaga’s genius.
Fame is a concept that has long fascinated the artist — hell, she named her debut album The Fame. And it featured breakout hit “Paparazzi.” It doesn’t get more on-the-nose than that. While Mayhem dives back into the familiar subject, it does so in an unfamiliar fashion by bringing a gritty and industrial edge to Gaga’s electro-pop.
That sonic universe came to life on Coachella’s main stage, with an expansive set design that depicted an opera house — though it looked just as much like a medieval castle hosting a demonic rave (feeding into another of Gaga’s taglines for the weekend: “Dance or die”).
The entire performance felt like a living, breathing entity — in large part because Gaga wore a headset, which captured each and every controlled breath she took. But also because of the storyline, which across its five acts revisited various Lady Gagas of the past — all of whom, as the show proved, are still very much alive in Gaga despite being dormant. Or, in the case of this performance, despite being left for dead.
In Act 1: Velvet and Vice, fans are greeted by present-day Gaga wearing a black bob. And yet, she opens with “Bloody Mary,” a song off 2011’s Born This Way. The rest of the act continued to balance old and new, sandwiching “Judas” between Mayhem tracks “Abracadabra” and “Garden of Eden” before ending with The Fame standout “Poker Face.” For the lattermost’s performance, Gaga simulated a high-stakes chess game — one that felt reminiscent of the infamous Wizard’s Chess scene from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Only here, Gaga is playing against herself — and its present-day Gaga who prevails.
After declaring, “off with her head,” to a fallen blonde Gaga of decades past, her vision for this show snaps into focus as the acts that follow examine the darker sides of fame. In Act 2: And She Fell Into a Gothic Dream, the slain blonde Gaga is seen buried among skeletons — only she’s very much alive. Both she and the corpses next to her slowly come alive — including another past Gaga, this one from 2009 wearing a red lace bodysuit reminiscent of the one she wore to the Video Music Awards that year.
Act 2 fittingly opens with “Perfect Celebrity,” which is followed by “Disease” and a stunning, stripped back rendition of “Papparazi” that serves as the emotional arch of the entire set – sensing the theme? “Sometimes I feel like I went into a dream when I was 20 years old…and I didn’t know if I wanted to wake up, because what if you weren’t there?” Gaga asked of her fans, still as her blonde self.
Her question begged another: Is fame the byproduct of a co-dependent relationship between artist and fan?
Enter Act 3: The Beautiful Nightmare That Knows Her Name. Accompanied by Mayhem collaborator Gesaffelstein, Gaga ripped into “Killah” and “Zombieboy,” tossing in a condensed “Die With a Smile” (her chart-topping collaboration with Bruno Mars) before returning to more recent releases with “How Bad Do U Want Me.” In Act 4: To Wake Her Is To Lose Her, Gaga returns to her new form, black bob and all.
Before performing the lively “Born This Way” – which felt like it could be the finale, complete with a firework display – Gaga told the crowd: “You are who you choose to be, you always will be.” And as Gaga showed all night long, each and every version of herself got here where she stands today – they are all her. And they always will be. But that doesn’t mean she chooses them any more.
As a parting gift, for a set that prioritzed new music and storytelling over the hits, Gaga performed the soaring “Shallow” alone at the piano, positioned at the end of the stage’s runway. As she surveyed the packed field, she mused, “As far as I can see, there’s people everywhere….I hope one day I’ll just vanish right into you.” She then performed “Vanish Into You” while walking alongside fans pressed against the barricades, stopping to hold hands and even sing into their faces as she made her way back to the stage. And true to her word, she soon after disappeared.
Minutes passed and the stage lights remained dim – but on. As some attendees started to peel off, the majority remained firmly planted, trusting Mother Monster wouldn’t leave them like that. Sure enough, after five minutes it was time for the final act: Finale: Eternal Aria Of the Monster Heart.
“We are monsters – and monsters never die,” said Gaga, before ending with an extended version of “Bad Romance.” And after the last two hours of such high-value, intentional performance art, the song took on new meaning. “I want your love,” sang Gaga, as she had so many times before. Only tonight, it felt like a direct plea to her fans. “You know that I want you, you know that I need you,” she continued.
And while at times fame, and all that comes with it, may feel like Gaga is stuck in a bad love story, tonight she made it her own. Tonight, she delivered a poignant and entertaining take on what it means to be a superstar – and did so while further solidifying her own role as one of the biggest.
Coachella 2025 got off to both a literal and figurative hot start on Friday (April 11), with daytime temperatures in the desert hitting 100-degrees and a cavalcade of stars gracing the festival’s many stages. Among them were hip-hop legend Missy Elliott, South African star Tyla, pop queen LISA, rapper GloRilla and many others including Lady […]
Ahead of d4vd’s Coachella set, the singer sat down and shared what fans could expect from his performance, and tying it into his new album, working with Kali Uchis on “Crashing,” and more!
What did you think of d4vd’s performance? Let us know in the comments!
Tetris Kelly:
Yo. What’s up? It’s Tetris with Billboard News, and I’m lucky enough to be hanging with an artist that’s performing at Coachella. d4vd, how are you feeling?
d4vd:
I’m great, man. How’re you feeling?
I’m feeling good, but I can’t imagine what is going through your mind right now. So tell me, like, how you are you prepared? Is the Fit ready? What’s the aesthetic?
Ooh, yeah, I went to the fitting yesterday. I had a little vibe check. Little vibe check. I picked out two, two fire outfits. You know, I’m excited. I’m hyped. I’m thrilled. I got all the adrenaline in my body already preparing me for Friday, but I’m excited.
So you said you got two fits picked out. So are you trying to give something different weekend one versus weekend two?
Yeah, yeah. I got this iconic style that I go for, but there’s always like so much to play around with with this style. I don’t give too much away right now, but it’s just coming, bro.
All right, and then what would you say is your style inspiration overall, when you’re, like, preparing for, like, performing or doing a photoshoot.
You know what? I like to keep it like, when I’m on stage, I have this classic kind of business attire to it, like I wear, like this white shirt with like suede pants and like all types of different stuff that kind of brings more swag to the show, you know.
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Congratulations are in order — and overdue — for Mick Jagger and his longtime parter Melanie Hamrick, who are engaged.
Hamrick confirmed the news to Paris Match, revealing that the Rolling Stones frontman has been her fiancé for “two or three years.” On the topic of marriage, she shared, “Maybe one day we’ll marry, maybe not. We are so happy in our current life that I would be too afraid to change anything.”
Jagger and Hamrick, a former ballerina and choreographer at American Ballet Theatre, have been together since 2014. She says their love was a slow burn, as Jagger was still dating the late model L’Wren Scott when they met in Japan, where the Stones and the American Ballet Theatre were both touring at the time. “We didn’t even exchange phone numbers,” she recalled. “At the time, I wasn’t in a relationship, but he was.”
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The couple share eight-year-old son Deveraux Octavian Basil Jagger, and the sweet boy is often featured on his mother’s Instagram account.
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Jagger has seven other children, welcoming his eldest daughter, Karis, 54, with actress Marsha Hunt in 1970. The year after, he married ex-wife Bianca Jagger and the couple welcomed their daughter Jade, 53. With his ex-wife Jerry Hall, Jagger shares four children — daughters Elizabeth, 41, and Georgia May, 33, as well as sons James, 39, and Gabriel, 27. He also shares son Lucas, 25, with model Luciana Morad Gimenez.
Led by Spotify and Live Nation, music stocks surged on Wednesday (April 9) after the U.S. Treasury placed a 90-day pause on most tariffs and recaptured some of the losses from the chaotic previous week.
A week after losing $12 billion in market value, Spotify was one of the top-performing music stocks of the week, gaining 8.0% and offsetting most of the previous week’s 10.3% decline. A 9.8% gain on Wednesday helped improve the streaming company’s two-week loss to 3.1%.
The 20-company Billboard Global Music Index (BGMI) gained 4.6% to 2,362.78 on Wednesday’s 90-day tariff pause. That welcome news recaptured only a fraction of the previous week’s losses, however, and music stocks were hurt by a weakened U.S. dollar and growing fears the U.S. could slip into a recession. After losing 8.2% in the previous week, the index’s two-week loss stands at 4.0%.
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U.S. markets rebounded after a miserable week. The Nasdaq rose 7.3% to 16,724.46, bringing its two-week loss to 3.5%. The S&P 500 rose 5.7% to 5,363.36, giving it a two-week decline of 3.9%.
Many markets outside of the U.S. were down, however. In the U.K., the FTSE 100 dropped 1.1%, giving it a two-week loss of 8.0%. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index was down 1.3%, adding to the previous week’s 3.6% decline. China’s SSE Composite Index dipped 3.1% a week after falling 0.3%.
Music streamer LiveOne was the week’s biggest gainer after jumping 18.0% to $0.72. The company’s preliminary results for fiscal 2025 released on Monday (April 7) showed the music streaming company had revenue of more than $112 million, while subscribers and ad-supported listeners surpassed 1.45 million. Even after the large increase, LiveOne shares have fallen 47.4% year to date.
Live Nation, which jumped 7.2% to $129.52 this week, is the only music company to post a gain over the past two weeks. The concert promoter’s share price dropped 3.4% the previous week but, with the help of a 10.9% jump on Wednesday, recovered well enough for a two-week gain of 3.6%.
Record labels and publishers finished the week in the middle of the pack. Warner Music Group fell 1.5% to $29.03, bringing its two-week decline to 8.0%. Universal Music Group was down 1.6%, giving it a two-week decline of 10.7%. Reservoir Media rose 0.7% to $7.10, giving it a two-week deficit of just 2.1%.
Sphere Entertainment Co. is one of the worst-performing music stocks over the past two weeks with an 18.5% decline. The company’s shares finished the week up 1.3%, barely offsetting the previous week’s 19.5% decline. A spike on Wednesday was partially offset by declines of 4.3% and 7.7% on Tuesday (April 8) and Thursday (April 10), respectively.
Most radio companies, which are heavily exposed to slowed advertising spending during recessions, had another down week. Cumulus Media dropped 22.5% to $0.31, bringing its two-week loss to 34.0%. iHeartMedia fell 4.2%, which took its two-week decline to 29.9%. Townsquare Media was down 4.9% this week and 13.6% over the past two weeks. Satellite broadcaster SiriusXM, which was upgraded by Seaport to buy from neutral, gained 2.6% this week, narrowing its two-week loss to 12.0%.
The two Chinese music streaming companies on the BGMI fared poorly despite the recoveries by Spotify, LiveOne and Deezer, which gained 2.3%. Tencent Music Entertainment fell 5.5% to $12.24 but was likely helped by Nomura initiating coverage this week with a buy rating and a $17.20 price target. Cloud Music shares dropped 5.7% to 141.50 HKD ($18.24).
K-pop companies, which bucked the downward trend the previous week, posted declines as well. SM Entertainment fell 8.2%, HYBE dropped 8.1%, JYP Entertainment sank 5.8% and YG Entertainment dipped 4.1%.
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Starting early Thursday morning (April 10), Coachella campers arriving a day early to set up their campsites and attend the festival’s first-ever Day Zero dance party took to social media to post troubling dispatches about long lines and a lack of bathrooms or shade as they waited for hours to get in. According to sources close to the festival, the likely culprits for the traffic jam were two small changes at the festival’s popular car camping ground.
The first change was that the campgrounds began letting people in on Thursday at 9 a.m. this year, which is later than in past years, according to sources and fans posting on social media. The second was the festival’s launch of a preferred campsite program for the campground closest to the festival entrance.
On its website, Coachella describes the Preferred Front Row Car campground as an upgraded experience where attendees can “arrive at your leisure in a guaranteed spot in the front row of the lot closest to the venue.” The cost for a preferred car campsite is $462.17, while the cost for a regular car campsite is $179.37.
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Administering the new preferred campsite program, which replaced the traditional first-come, first-served system with a reservation-based system, took a little more time per camper to manage, sources tell Billboard — and that extra few minutes per camper quickly mushroomed into extra hours as the day wore on.
Slowing things down even more was that many diehard fans arrived as early as 2 a.m. to get first crack at the best campsites in the general camping area. On social media sites like Reddit and TikTok, some fans have claimed that Goldenvoice opened access to the camping area as early as 3 a.m., with many sharing tips on when to arrive; sources close to the festival say the festival sometimes opened as early as 6 a.m. The official entry time for the campgrounds in both 2024 and 2025 was listed as 9 a.m.
Whatever the case, the decision to open the campground no earlier than 9 a.m. this year created a large backlog of fans who had to wait hours to go through the festival’s check-in process, which often includes a security screening for all campers.
The changes caused frustrating delays for fans as they waited in their cars for hours to get in, sitting in the hot desert sun with temperatures peaking at 100 degrees and no options for shade or public bathrooms.
There was a small silver lining to this year’s changes that many fans embraced. For the first time in Coachella’s 25-year history, organizers added a live performance on the opening Thursday of the festival, known in Coachella fan parlance as Zero Day. For some fans, the hours-long set by veteran electronic artist Chris Lake helped balance out the difficult start to the day.
“[The traffic jam] doesn’t take away from this,” one festival goer told the Los Angeles Times. “That’s in the past. We’re about to see the G.O.A.T. and we’re living in the present now. It’s all right.”
Katy Perry is just three days away from living her hit single, “E.T.,” in real life, and the star took to Instagram to tease her upcoming space flight. The “Lifetimes” singer will be on board Jeff Bezos’ space exploration company Blue Origin’s first all-women flight crew, which will be led by Lauren Sánchez — who […]
Guest artists, surprises and lots of fun. That’s how Rawayana‘s debut at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is shaping up. The band will perform this and next Saturday (April 12 and 19) on the Gobi stage. According to lead vocalist Beto Montenegro, it will be a true tribute to their home country, where their last tour was canceled late last year amid political turmoil.
“Honestly, we’re scratching the itch after not being able to play in Venezuela,” Montenegro told Billboard Español on Friday (April 11) in an exclusive interview. “Our idea is to bring the Venezuelan Caribbean to Coachella. That’s the concept of the show. And to dedicate this to all the people who couldn’t see us in December.”
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Both performances will be streamed live on Coachella’s YouTube channel.
Rawayana will bring a total of ten special guests for their two shows, Montenegro shared. While he preferred to keep their identities a surprise, he revealed that this weekend’s performance will feature three Venezuelan and two Puerto Rican artists, and next week’s will include three more Venezuelans, a Colombian, and a Puerto Rican. “Our guests are the best of Venezuela,” he added enthusiastically. “They’re all from different worlds, but very important in our career and in Venezuelan music.”
And Rawayana won’t just be performing at the prominent festival in Indio, California. They’ll also premiere a music video during Coachella’s livestream: the clip for their viral hit “Veneka,” with Venezuelan rapper Akapellah, which was released last October. Filmed in November during the Caracas-Magallanes baseball game at loanDepot Park in Miami with the participation of many Venezuelan female figures from pop culture, the video will have its world premiere tonight (April 11) at 11:05 p.m. ET (8:05 p.m. PT) on the Main Stage YouTube channel, one week before its official release.
The festival announced it earlier today with a fun video on social media featuring another famous Venezuelan: Hollywood actor Edgar Ramírez.
“I mean, honestly, this Coachella is completely dedicated to Venezuela, and that makes us very happy,” Montenegro said, explaining that the song and the concept for the “Veneka” video were inspired by the baseball games they used to watch in their home country. “We used to go to the stadiums, and this type of music, raptor house [a dance electronic music genre originating in Caracas], would play. When the game ended, [the cameras] would always look for women in the crowd, and ‘Caracas de Noche’ would play. It was very iconic.”
Montenegro expressed his pride in performing at Coachella, the same festival where decades ago their fellow Venezuelans Los Amigos Invisibles — whom he said they were “ultra mega fans” of — played, and where this year they share the lineup with Gustavo Dudamel, “one of those little geniuses Venezuela has produced in recent times,” and Arca, “who is also a genius.”
“We feel amazing. It’s a privilege.”
It seems like Drake has added another Pharrell chain to his growing collection. The Toronto rapper took to his moodboard slash burner account @plottttwistttttt recently and shared a picture of the producer’s N.E.R.D. brain pendant chain that was previously owned by Kid Cudi. The chain, made by Jacob & Co., is 14k white gold, rose […]
As artificial intelligence continues to blur the lines of creativity in music, South Korea’s largest music copyright organization, KOMCA (Korea Music Copyright Association), is drawing a hard line: No AI-created compositions will be accepted for registration. The controversial decision took effect on March 24, sending ripples through Korea’s music scene and sparking broader conversations about AI’s role in global songwriting.
In an official statement on its website, KOMCA explained that due to the lack of legal frameworks and clear management guidelines for AI-generated content, it will suspend the registration of any works involving AI in the creative process. This includes any track where AI was used — even in part — to compose, write lyrics or contribute melodically.
Now, every new registration must be accompanied by an explicit self-declaration confirming that no AI was involved at any stage of the song’s creation. This declaration is made by checking a box on the required registration form — a step that carries significant legal and financial consequences if false information is declared. False declarations could lead to delayed royalty payments, complete removal of songs from the registry, and even civil or criminal liability.
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“KOMCA only recognizes songs that are wholly the result of human creativity,” the association said, noting that even a 1% contribution from AI makes a song ineligible for registration. “Until there is clear legislation or regulatory guidance, this is a precautionary administrative policy.”
The non-profit organization represents over 30,000 members, including songwriters, lyricists, and publishers, and oversees copyright for more than 3.7 million works from artists like PSY, BTS, EXO and Super Junior.
Importantly, the policy applies to the composition and lyric-writing stages of song creation, not necessarily the production or recording phase. That means high-profile K-pop companies like HYBE, which have used AI to generate multilingual vocal lines for existing songs, are not directly affected — at least not yet.
While South Korea’s government policy allows for partial copyright protection when human creativity is involved, KOMCA’s stance is notably stricter, requiring a total absence of AI involvement for a song to be protected.
This move comes amid growing international debate over the copyrightability of AI-generated art. In the U.S., a federal appeals court recently upheld a lower court’s decision to reject copyright registration for a work created entirely by an AI system called Creativity Machine. The U.S. Copyright Office maintains that only works with “human authorship” are eligible for protection, though it allows for copyright in cases where AI is used as a tool under human direction.
“Allowing copyright for machine-determined creative elements could undermine the constitutional purpose of copyright law,” U.S. Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter said.
With AI tools becoming increasingly sophisticated — and accessible — KOMCA’s policy underscores a growing tension within the global music industry: Where do we draw the line between assistance and authorship?
This article originally appeared on Billboard Korea.