News Analysis India

Tag: Coachella

  • Harry Styles duets with Shania Twain at Coachella

    LOS ANGELES: Singer Harry Styles started off his headlining set at Coachella with a simple greeting – ‘Good evening. My name is Harry’.”It’s big in here, innit?” Styles cracked, before explaining how things were gonna go. “For the next 80-or-something minutes, our job is to entertain you. I promise you we’ll do our absolute very best. You also have one job – that is to have much fun as you possibly can. I want you to be whoever it is you always wanted to be in this field tonight,” reports ‘Variety’.For Styles, that meant a regression of sorts – to his younger, pre-One Direction days when he would sing Shania Twain songs in the car.”This lady taught me to sing,” said Styles of Twain. “She also told me that men are trash.” Said Twain: “I’m a bit starstruck, what can I say? No, really, I’m a fan of you, of course. I realise that when I was writing this song, you were just a little kid. It’s kind of a dream and very surreal to be sitting here right now to sing this song with you. I think I’m just in love and this song is all about love. So let’s just sing about love.” The two then took to stools to sing 1997’s ‘You’re Still the One’, reports ‘Variety’.Earlier in the set, Styles brought out a couple new songs of his own: the just-released ‘As It Was’, and a new tune presumably called ‘Boyfriends’, in which Styles remarked: “Who in the audience has ever had a boyfriend? Who in the audience has never had a boyfriend? To boyfriends everywhere, fuck you.”Styles implored the crowd “to please be gentle” for the track’s debut. The acoustic-based song with multiple harmonies tells of what seems like an on-again-off-again relationship in which, ‘You still open the door’.Later on, Styles debuted another unreleased track, ‘Late Night Talking’. Styles’ third studio album, ‘Harry’s House’, is due out May 20. It all related nicely to Styles’ comment at the top of the set: “We have a full moon, you have a ticket and I have to play.”

  • Kanye West drops out of Coachella Music Festival

    By ANI

    WASHINGTON: American rapper Kanye West, whose name has been hovering over social media for several months, is again in the headlines owing to his decision to pull out of Coachella.

    As reported by Variety, the reason for his cancellation is not clear yet, but it is speculated that Kanye had not rehearsed and was unprepared for his performance.

    His decision comes as a surprise as the prestigious annual event is just 11 days away, and it’s unclear as to which artist would replace Kanye for his set. This announcement comes after a controversial past few months, where the rapper had also been barred from a planned appearance at the Grammy Awards, held earlier this Sunday, due to his ‘concerning online behaviour.’

    The controversy blew when Kanye publicly attacked Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson online following Kim’s divorce from West.

    Kanye, who was slated to perform at Coachella on April 17 and 24, had previously cancelled the closing dates of his 2016 Saint Pablo tour, and was hospitalised shortly afterwards. He had accepted it multiple times that he suffers from bipolar disorder, and the pattern of incidents establish the shift in his behaviour in recent months.

    Coachella, having been headlined by Kanye in 2011, is North America’s largest music festival and has already sold out 125,000 per-day tickets.

    The music festival scheduled to be held at the Empire Polo Ground in Indio, California, begins next week on April 15, with Billie Eilish and Harry Styles headlining the highly celebrated global event. 

  • Billie Eilish, Kanye to headline much-postponed Coachella in April

    Billie Eilish and Kanye West are slated to headline the 2022 edition of North America’s biggest (and four-time postponed) music festival – Coachella.

    Reporting this, ‘Variety’ noted that Swedish House Mafia (SHM) is also on the bill, although it is unclear whether the group is the already-sold-out festival’s third headliner – the traditional “throwback” slot for the reunion of a more veteran artiste.

    West headlined the festival in 2011 and Eilish had a breakthrough performance in 2019 (she would be the youngest artiste to top the Coachella bill); SHM previously performed at Coachella in 2012.

    The festival is scheduled to take place over the weekends of April 15-17 and April 22-24, 2022, at its usual location: Empire Polo Ground in Indio, California.

    The alarming Omicron surge and the postponement of the Grammy Awards, however, has left many wondering whether the festival will take place in April, or be moved – for a fifth time – to a later date.

    Coachella has already sold out its 125,000 per-day tickets, and the sheer logistics of more than 100,000 people travelling to and gathering at a single location create immeasurable possibilities for disease transmission, according to ‘Variety’.

    The original headliners of this 21st installment of the festival — first announced in January 2020 — were Travis Scott, Frank Ocean and Rage Against the Machine, the festival has been postponed due to the pandemic four times. Last year, Ocean moved his appearance to 2023, and Scott was dropped from the bill in the wake of the Astroworld tragedy in November.

    Rage, too, is reported to be off the bill.