Frank Ocean Coachella drama 

Singer drops out of second weekend after controversy  

Jessica Mills / Arts & Culture Editor / The USD Vista

After a six-year performance hiatus, singer Frank Ocean graced the Coachella stage as a headline performer for the event’s first weekend. Despite being the largest music festival in North America — featuring hundreds of popular artists — many Coachella-goers bought festival tickets solely to watch Ocean’s set on the third day. 

Ocean was announced as the final headliner for Coachella’s lineup back in 2020, which was canceled due to the COVID- 19 pandemic and rescheduled for 2022. However, Ocean was unavailable during the event’s new dates, according to Rolling Stone, and was replaced by Kanye West. West later pulled out, and The Weeknd took his place. 

While many had high performance expectations, videos and posts flooded social media platforms, chronicling attendee’s distress over Ocean’s set during and after his performance. After showing up late, his show ended sooner and more abruptly than many listeners were expecting, due to Coachella’s curfew of midnight on Sunday. 

Vulture detailed that per the festival’s agreement with Indio, going five minutes past curfew costs $20,000, plus an added $1,000 for every additional minute. Due to his tardiness, Ocean’s set went 25 minutes past Coachella’s curfew, costing the festival $40,000 in fines. Ocean briefly walked off stage before coming back to announce that the show was over. 

USD senior Maile Nomura was among those disappointed in his overall performance. 

    “If I could describe Frank’s set in one word, it would be: disrespectful,” Nomura explained. “When Frank sang, it was absolutely beautiful. I am a huge Frank Ocean fan; I bought tickets in June [2022] before the lineup was announced and Frank was the only confirmed artist, because I knew the rest of the lineup did not matter, as long as I could see Frank. I waited for four hours to see him, and at the end of the night I just felt disrespected to be honest.” Robb Report explained that Ocean was set to make $4 million per headlining show, $8 million in total for Coachella’s two weekends. Now, they say Ocean will only be paid $4 million, but his performance could further cost the festival. 

    “There [are] a lot of people making excuses about his performance, but the bottom line is it was unprofessional,” Nomura. “He committed to a performance, he was paid millions, he is aware of the dedication of his fans, and yet he still came on late, didn’t sing with a mic for half the set, and barely thanked everyone at the abrupt ending of his concert.” 

Additional reports stated that Ocean had originally decided that his stage would be transformed into an ice rink. Billboard explained that the set up “required more than a month of rehearsals […] for dozens of other professional hockey and figure skaters.” 

Word then spread among the skaters and performers that Ocean had allegedly hurt his ankle, and in the 11th hour, the ice stage was melted down and deconstructed. 

Dan Powers, a former hockey player that was to perform on Ocean’s set and co-host of “Empty Netters Podcast,” said in an episode that “Those figure skaters got cut, not because there was an ice issue, not because there was something wrong. There was no malfunction. [Ocean] just straight-up was like, ‘F–k this. I’m not doing this anymore.’ And [to] these 120 people [he] had bused out here, he was just like, ‘You guys aren’t doing s–t now.’ So it was just a wild flip.”

Furthermore, those set changes reportedly made Ocean late to his own show. 

“He was around an hour late, but he did not appear on stage for another 20-30 minutes after the music started playing, so in that sense he was [one] and a half  [hours] late,” Nomura said. “I think people expected him to be at least 20-30 minutes late, but an hour and a half is simply just unprofessional.”

Instead, the stage was transformed into one large screen. Among microphones, keyboards and other instruments, Ocean was tucked in a back area. He was hidden from most audience members, unless a camera showed him on the large screen. Ocean would also leave the stage for various lengths of time, while the camera pivoted to DJ Crystalmess or New Orleans artist HaSizzle. 

USD senior Sydney Frigerio explained that many of Ocean’s songs were remixed, following unfamiliar tempos that the audience couldn’t sing along to. 

“The whole thing was just very ‘off,’ that’s the best way I can describe it,” Frigerio said. “He kept playing remixes of his songs, and he was half-singing. There was a huge screen covering him the entire time too.” 

During his show, Ocean also took the time to talk to the audience about his brother, who passed away from a car accident in 2020. 

“He gave his speech that I’m sure everyone on TikTok has seen at this point, about his brother and how they used to go to Coachella a lot, how he missed us [his fans] and how there might be an album coming,” Frigerio said. 

Ocean is known as a less traditional artist — he doesn’t tour or release music frequently and lives a very private life. Many viewers said that the reason for his speech and the quality of his performance was due to mental health issues. 

“A lot of people are saying he did this because of his anxiety, however there were certain points where he did come a bit further out on stage,” Nomura said. “Knowing that, I feel like being hidden for the majority of the concert definitely took away from the performance. He could have easily just [sat] on a chair with a spotlight and sang and people would have been beyond happy.”

Each year, Coachella live streams every artists’ performances — often containing exclusive interviews. However, Ocean’s set was the only one not included on the live stream. Rolling Stone said that this was due to the last minute production adjustments. For those in attendance, mixed feelings surfaced regarding the caliber of Ocean’s show. 

“On a purely business end of things, he’s being paid millions and millions of dollars for this,” Frigerio said. “You know, he signed a contract and agreed to do this, as an artist and performer, your job is to perform. On kind of a different perspective, I think for people that are at the top of their craft, the public can glorify them and forget that they have lives outside the ones they’re portraying to us. But then, I have this whole thought process of: okay maybe he did sign up thinking he was ready, and then he got there and he [realized] ‘I don’t think I can do this.’” 

Just three days after weekend one, Variety Magazine announced that Ocean pulled out of his scheduled, second weekend headline slot due to fractures and a sprained left ankle. In his place, Blink-182 performed. The report included a statement from Ocean saying, “‘It was chaotic. 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.’ — Frank Ocean.”

Despite Ocean pulling out of weekend two, USD junior Marco Jimenez enjoyed the festival. 

“When I heard that Frank Ocean had dropped out, I was really disappointed. He wasn’t the only reason I got my ticket, of course, but I was really excited to see him, because I’m a huge fan. I tried not to let that ruin it for me because there were still so many other people I wanted to see, I also heard that his weekend [one] set was kind of a mess, so I would’ve been disappointed either way. It didn’t really feel like anything was missing, I still had a blast.”

Like Jimenez, many weekend two attendees were upset by Ocean’s drop-out. Some even doubted the actuality of his injury, once made public. 

“I know that a lot of outlets were saying that it was a leg injury, and I think there’s no way that’s true,” Frigerio said. “If I was going to weekend two I’d be pissed. Frank was a huge selling point. But, I hope he’s okay and works it out.” 

Overall, the controversy surrounding Frank Ocean’s Coachella 2023 performance generates various conversations about artists, accountability to their fans and their mental and physical well-being.