Allie Hinz '23
There were many disappointed fans after Frank Ocean’s performance at week 1 of Coachella 2023. Many factors played a role to make this an underwhelming performance and one of the most hated Coachella sets overall.
The singer's set was supposed to begin around 10 pm on April 16th. Thousands of music lovers anxiously waited for Ocean to take the stage as this was his first live performance since 2017. He did not step onto the stage until almost an hour after his original set time. Due to the fact that he started late, he performed 20 minutes after Coachella’s midnight cutoff, so his set came to an abrupt stop leaving fans confused.
Another complaint everyone heard was that Ocean was nearly impossible to see when on stage. The scaffolding and props that Ocean stood behind were so big, leaving him unseen by the audience.
To make matters worse, it was made clear that Frank Ocean was lip syncing the entire set list. At some points of the performance, the artist just let the recordings of his songs play and wandered around the stage.
Popular Twitter account Frank Ocean Daily: “What they got (the audience) was abysmal and pretty disrespectful. People paid a lot of money and what they got was a lip syncing, chaotic mess. Listen to the folks who were actually there.”
Fontbonne senior Annalisa Castrogiovanni, an avid listener of Frank Ocean explained, “I think that it was very unorganized, and I think after that long of not performing, he should've provided a better performance for his fans. I was extremely disappointed and I'm glad he dropped out of week 2.”
Not only was his performance distasteful, but his supposed difficulty to work with came to light. It is reported that Ocean had big plans to have an ice-skating rink on stage for his performance but then demanded it be scrapped the day of the festival.
According to reports, the singer hurt his ankle during on-site rehearsals in the weeks before his performance. As a result, production needed to quickly change to accommodate Ocean. Others believe he was just being selfish.
One positive thing that fans took away was his announcement that a new album is on the way. Although this is exciting news, many did not care as his performance was enough Frank Ocean for them for a long time.
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