Frank Ocean Drops Out as Coachella Headliner

A rep for Frank Ocean tells Rolling Stone that the singer has canceled his scheduled performance during the second weekend of Coachella — a week after his first performance left many fans baffled and disappointed.

On Wednesday, the rep for the enigmatic singer said that after suffering a leg injury at the festival during the first week of Coachella, a doctor advised that Ocean not perform the following week due to two fractures and a sprain in his left leg.

“It was chaotic. There is some beauty in chaos. It isn’t what I intended to show but I enjoy being out there and I’ll see you soon,” Ocean said in a statement provided by his rep.

Blink-182 is slated to take Ocean’s headlining spot, according to Variety.

Ocean’s headlining set at Coachella last Sunday marked his first live show since 2017, when he performed at several music festivals in Europe, along with an appearance at Los Angeles’ FYF Fest. The singer-songwriter was originally scheduled to headline the festival in 2020 before the pandemic hit and rescheduled for 2023, a date the festival locked-in two years early with an announcement in Aug. 2021.  However, his highly anticipated headlining performance during week one of Coachella left fans bewildered.

Ahead of the show, it was announced that Ocean’s set wouldn’t be livestreamed on the official Coachella YouTube channel like the rest of the festival, leaving many at home disgruntled. When the artist did take the stage, it was about an hour after his scheduled start time, and attendees had already begun to leave. Ocean sat in the middle of the stage covered by a massive screen for most of the performance, and abruptly cut the show short due to the strict midnight curfew on Sundays.

Since then, reports emerged that Ocean’s original set involved 120 performers skating on ice. Empty Netters — which is hosted by former hockey players Dan and Chris Powers — provided a detailed account of how the reported ice skating portion of Ocean’s Coachella set fell apart. The hosts explained that they were among the many professional skaters tapped for the performance.

On Sunday, Dan recalled running into a group of “Olympic figure skaters,” who were also performing. “They have a disgruntled look on their face, and they casually mention to us that they just got a phone call, and they’ve been cut from the show,” Dan said. 

Soon, Dan said, they began to hear “rumblings” about Ocean’s ankle injury, and not long after, they got a call that they would no longer be skating and that the ice was being taken down. Despite the chaos, Dan praised Ocean’s professionalism. “He was cool with everyone, he was teaching everyone how to sing the songs, giving them the cadence,” said the podcast host. “It felt like this was thing he really cared about, that he was super psyched about, and to see it all fall apart was definitely sad — but also nuts.” 

While news of Ocean’s controversial set and week two cancellation has left many frustrated, his long-awaited performance left some inspired. On Tuesday, Justin Bieber posted an image from Ocean’s performance alongside a caption sharing his thoughts. “I was blown away by Frank Oceans Coachella performance,” wrote Bieber. “I was deeply moved. It made me want to keep going and get better as an artist. He continues to set the bar high and gave me a night I will never forget! Thanks Frank.”