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Following his performance last week, Frank Ocean has pulled out of his scheduled headlining set at Coachella 2023 this Sunday, April 23. On a doctor’s advice, he will not perform due to two fractures and a sprain in his left leg. “It was chaotic,” Ocean said in a statement. “There is some beauty in chaos. It isn’t what I intended to show but I did enjoy being out there and I’ll see you soon.” Pitchfork has reached out to Coachella for further comment.
Ocean’s set on Sunday, April 16, featured reworked version of songs from across his discography, including “Novacane,” “Pink + White,” “White Ferrari,” “Crack Rock,” and more. There was a new punk version of the Django Unchained outtake “Wiseman” and a cover of the Willie Nelson-penned Aretha Franklin song “Night Life.” He addressed the crowd, hinting that a new album was in the works and paid tribute to his late brother Ryan Breaux.
There was some controversy surrounding the set, when fans online expressed their frustration that Ocean’s set was one of very few that wouldn’t appear on the festival’s YouTube stream. His set ended somewhat abruptly. “Guys, I’m being told it’s curfew, so that’s the end of the show,” Ocean said. “Thank you so much.” As the lights came up, fans booed and chanted “we want Frank.” The festival was later fined by Indio, California city officials for going over curfew.
Prior to today’s cancellation, sources indicated that Ocean had recently sustained an ankle injury and altered the set’s overall production on the advice of doctors. It was widely rumored that the changes included scrapped plans for an ice skating rink connected to the stage. Two ice skaters discussed their alleged experience working with Ocean in the week leading up to Sunday’s performance in a podcast.
Fans had been anticipating Ocean’s headlining performances at Coachella since 2020, when he was announced as one of the main acts before the festival was canceled for two years in a row due to the pandemic. In August 2021, when the event’s co-founder Paul Tollett revealed the news that Ocean would headline the 2023 edition in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
This marks the second year in a row a Coachella headliner has dropped out. In April 2022, less than two weeks before he was meant to perform, Kanye West pulled out of the festival. His representatives did not give a reason for the withdrawal, nor did the festival. He was replaced by Swedish House Mafia and the Weeknd, who performed together on Sundays, April 17 and 24. West was later sued for $7.1 million by the Los Angeles–based production and design firm Phantom Labs, which claimed the rapper owed them money for work on his canceled Coachella performance.
Follow along with all of Pitchfork’s coverage of Coachella 2023.
