By Jessica Wedemeyer
5:49am PDT, May 5, 2024
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This year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is in the books! The 2024 iteration of the annual musical extravaganza featured epic surprises, hotly anticipated reunions, some major head-scratchers and much, MUCH more.
But while some artists slayed their sets, others left fans feeling disappointed.
Join us as we look back at 21 of the most buzzed-about performances from the first weekend of Coachella this year — and count down from worst to best…
Keep reading to see Coachella 2024's top set…
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No. 21: Grimes
Grimes' DJ set at the Sahara stage on Saturday night was a disaster of epic portions. The singer-songwriter faced "a major technical difficulty" while live mixing, prompting her to abruptly stop and restart songs, rant about being bad at math, scream in frustration and ultimately cut short her performance. She later took to X to apologize and shed some light on what went wrong, attributing the "sonic chaos" to the fact that she "outsourced essential things … to save time" while preparing her Coachella set. She also acknowledged what she could've done differently: "pretend it's fine and engage with the crowd rather than spend a whole show slumped over the desk trying to fix software when you're meant to be entertaining," she wrote. (Grimes, by the way, managed to pull off a successful redemption set on the second weekend of Coachella.)
No. 20: Blur
Just one year after Gorillaz made major waves at Coachella 2023, frontman Damon Albarn returned to the Empire Polo Club with the band that first made him a star: Blur. The British indie rockers — who reached their peak in the '90s and dropped their first album in nearly a decade in mid-2023 – failed to connect with the audience at the main stage on Saturday night. While they got some love for their hit 1997 single "Song 2," Damon's attempts to spur some audience participation on their 1994 single "Girls & Boys" failed spectacularly. He was widely met with silence, prompting one of the weekend's most awkward moments. "You'll never see us again, so you might as well f****** sing it," he chided the crowd.
No. 19: Lil Uzi Vert
Lil Uzi Vert, who identifies as nonbinary, left fans divided with their Friday night main stage set. On the one hand, the rapper's dance moves were on fire. (They executed some flawless voguing while debuting a new song.) On the other hand, Uzi's backtrack appeared to be handling the bulk of the vocals during their set. For lengthy periods of time, it appeared as though they weren't rapping or singing live at all.
No. 18: Billie Eilish's Billie & Friends Party
Billie Eilish pulled off the type of epic surprise that Coachella is known for when she took over the Do LaB stage on Saturday night with her 45-minute Billie & Friends Party set. The history-making Grammy winner debuted three new tracks – one destined to become the year's biggest queer anthem – but mostly focused on spinning other artists' hits. It was one of the most widely attended sets of the weekend, which is pretty impressive considering Billie didn't actually perform anything live, ultimately leaving us wanting more.
No. 17: Ice Spice
Ice Spice certainly made the most of her super-short 30-minute set at the Sahara stage on Saturday night. The 24-year-old rapper — who dropped her debut EP in 2023 but has yet to release a full-length album — blasted through 14 songs including a new unreleased track that samples Sean Paul's 2001 single "Gimme the Light," plus a remix of Taylor Swift's "Karma." It was quite the impressive feat – though fans ultimately walked away from the set feeling disappointed by the fact that Taylor chose to watch her friend and collaborator from the VIP section rather than join Ice Spice on stage for a duet, as was widely expected. Ice Spice delivered a killer performance but sans Taylor, she just couldn't live up to the hype.
No. 16: Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend brought the weird to the Outdoor Theatre stage early on Saturday — just a week after the indie rock band became an uber-late addition to the Coachella 2024 lineup. They sounded flawless while rocking their way through their biggest hits, plus some new songs from their "Only God Was Above Us" album, which just dropped in early April. The weird-factor came late in the set when Paris Hilton joined them on stage to … play cornhole? Inexplicably, an Abraham Lincoln impersonator then took the stage to also play a quick round of cornhole.
No. 15: The Aquabats!
Arguably the most fun set of Coachella 2024? The Aquabats! The superhero rock band turned the Sonora stage into their own personal "Pool Party" — complete with beach balls and a guest list including "Yo Gabba Gabba!" characters — on Saturday afternoon. The MC Bat Commander may not have the most impressive vocals, but considering how much running and jumping across the stage he was doing, can you blame him?!
No. 14: Charlotte de Witte
Charlotte de Witte had EDM fans buzzing over her powerhouse techno set at the Mojave stage on Saturday night. The Belgian DJ showed the uninitiated exactly how she earned the moniker "The Queen of Techno" as she slowly transformed the Empire Polo Club into a full-blown rave.
No. 13: J Balvin
J Balvin's out-of-this-world Coachella set included multiple wardrobe changes, elaborate sets, flawless choreography and an inexplicable but amazing surprise appearance from Will Smith that had everyone talking. The multi-talented Oscar winner showed up to perform his debut single as a solo artist, 1997's "Men in Black," from the sci-fi action-comedy of the same name. Why? We may never know. But we were here for it — even if it was an obvious gimmick.
No. 12: Doja Cat
Doja Cat's headlining set on Sunday night had everything we've come to love about the Grammy winner's live performances: elaborate sets, wild costumes, flawless choreography, surprise guests (21 Savage and A$AP Rocky among them) and more. Yet it also featured several unexpected elements that left us feeling somewhat disappointed: long periods of silence between numbers, extremely limited dialogue that left the show feeling impersonal and the noticeable absence of the rapper's biggest single: the 2020 No. 1 hit "Say So."
No. 11: John Summit
John Summit closed out the Sahara stage on Sunday night with an epic dance party that had critics of his typically mainstream-leaning EDM style eating their words. His visuals and lighting further elevated his set, harkening back to the days when a Coachella lineup was nothing without at least a few prominent House DJs.
No. 10: Peso Pluma
If you didn't know Peso Pluma before, we bet you do now! The Mexican singer delivered a Friday night set on the main stage that flawlessly blended the modern — pyrotechnics, hip-hop dancers, a surprise appearance from Becky G and more — with the traditional elements that define his corridos tumbados-heavy musical style. He paid homage to the Mexican stars that came before him while backed by a full band including both brass and string sections. Well done!
No. 9: Sabrina Carpenter
Sabrina Carpenter truly went above and beyond with her cinematic hour-long set on the main stage on Friday night, which kicked off with a short film in which she crashed a car into a motel. The pop star then performed on a set resembling that very same motel, accompanied by a full band and backup dancers. Notably, she also performed her brand new single "Espresso" live for the very first time.
No. 8: Sublime
Sublime made their debut with their new vocalist — Jakob Nowell, the 28-year-old son of original frontman Bradley Nowell, who died at 28 in 1996 — on the Coachella main stage on Saturday night. Fans were thrilled with the nostalgic 50-minute set, which certainly made a case for the reggae-rock band's enduring legacy.
No. 7: Renee Rapp
Renee Rapp delivered one of the most buzzed-about sets of Coachella thanks to surprise appearances by "The L Word" stars Jennifer Beals, Kate Moenning and Leisha Hailey — who took the stage at the Outdoor Theatre on Sunday night to introduce her — and Kesha, who joined her for a rendition of her hit 2009 single "Tik Tok." The star of the 2024 "Mean Girls" musical movie and the "We R Who We R" chart-topper had the crowd roaring with a noteworthy lyric change: Instead of kicking off the song with Kesha's original lyrics — "Wake up in the mornin' feelin' like P Diddy" — they sang, "Wake up in the mornin' like f*** P Diddy," in a nod to the abuse and sex trafficking allegations against the music mogul.
No. 6: Kid Cudi
Kid Cudi's Sunday night set at the Sahara stage on weekend 2 of Coachella was so lit, fans didn't even realize that the "Day 'n' Nite" hitmaker had seriously injured himself. The rapper — who performed in front of a giant statue of himself — broke his foot when he jumped off the stage toward the end of his set, but that didn't stop the packed crowd from dancing like wild as Cudi's DJ brought things to an end with the Steve Aoki remix of "Pursuit of Happiness." Before the accident, Cudi performed two new songs — "Blue Sky" and "Moon Man S***" — live for the very first time. (The tracks debuted on the back-to-back "Insano" and "Insano (Nitro Mega)" albums that he dropped in January and February 2024.)
No. 5: No Doubt
It was the set that had everyone buzzing in the months leading up to Coachella: No Doubt reunited for the first time in nearly a decade on the main stage on Saturday night. The ska-infused pop-rock band's high-energy performance – which included several tracks from their breakthrough 1995 "Tragic Kingdom" album, plus a surprise assist from Olivia Rodrigo on their 2000 single "Bathwater" — certainly lived up to the hype … even if we couldn't help but notice that Gwen Stefani's vocals were more than a little off-key.
No. 4: Gesaffelstein
Gesaffelstein left the crowd at the Outdoor Theatre stage on Saturday night completely dumbfounded with his darker than dark EDM set. Clad in an all-black suit and mask with eyes that glowed from within, the French DJ dished out deep industrial beats from between two clusters of giant black crystals as a Vantablack-painted monolith towered behind him. It was undoubtedly the most visually impressive spectacle of Coachella 2024. He really brought the art to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival!
No. 3: Chappell Roan
Chappell Roan has officially arrived! The singer-songwriter and rising queer icon brought her powerful vocals to the Gobi stage on Friday night, proving that her growing popularity is no fluke as she belted out bangers from her 2023 debut studio album, "The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess," to a spillover crowd gathered to catch a glimpse of the pop star's signature mane of bright red hair. It was the set that queer TikTok couldn't get enough of!
No. 2: Justice
French DJ duo Justice brought the house down with their nostalgia-infused set at the Outdoor Theatre stage on Friday night, which also served as the live debut of several new tracks from their upcoming "Hyperdrama" album — their first in nearly a decade. EDM fans certainly had a lot to write home about!
No. 1: Tyler, the Creator
Tyler, the Creator knocked it out of the park with his comedy-infused, National Park-themed Saturday night headlining set, which featured a fun stunt arrival onto the stage, pyrotechnics, special guest appearances from Donald Glover, A$AP Rocky, Kali Uchis and Charlie Wilson, plus so much more.
