The prestigious American Coachella festival, which takes place over two replicated and consecutive weekends in Indio, in the Californian desert, was back after two years of absence due to the pandemic, on Friday 15, Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 April. On the menu, a gigantic poster with more than a hundred concerts from which it was difficult to choose. Here, among dozens of others, are a few moments to remember from this first round, seen from France, before the second scheduled for next weekend.
Billie Eilish electrifies the festival and brings Damon Albarn of the Gorillaz on stage
It is to Billie Eilish, 20 years old and now brunette, that returned the honor of concluding the day of Saturday at Coachella. An electrifying performance where his exceptional voice and his talent as a stage beast shone again if we are to believe the witnesses. And all this from the youngest artist to headline this festival, which she did not fail to raise in her own way, exclaiming into the microphone “It’s so strange. I shouldn’t be the headliner of this thing. It’s been three years manThree years since she made her debut, in 2019, at this same festival, winning 7 Grammys since then, composing the theme for the latest James Bond with her brother Finneas and becoming one of the biggest pop stars of the decade. At Coachella, Billie Eilish played most of the songs from her latest album Happier Than Ever, flying over the audience from a gondola when she wasn’t on the protruding stage. Singer Khalid came to sing the ballad as a duet Lovely and Damon Albarn of the Gorillaz accompanied her on Getting Olderbefore being joined by Posdnuos from De La Soul for a cover of Feel Good Inc. (from Gorillaz). His brother Finneas, who co-composes and produces all of his songs, performed a concert at Coachella in his own name, on a more modest stage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEbTcin4LPg
Stromae impresses despite some technical issues
If his spectacular show, and in particular his animated avatar, impressed the public at Coachella, where he was performing for the second time (the first was in 2015), Stromae experienced some technical problems on Saturday evening, as he confessed into the microphone. The desert wind was indeed blowing in gusts on the stage and he could not deploy certain elements of the show, the famous robotic and articulated arms which create effects, reports The Parisian (subscribers only). But he entertained the public with his robot dog and then got the crowd dancing to the famous choreography of Health and made him sing on Papaoutai and Tremendous, as during his “preview” concerts given at the end of February in Brussels, Paris and Amsterdam. A few hours earlier, Stromae had launched his re-conquest of the United States by appearing on the Jimmy Kimmel Show to interpret Sons of Joy.
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Harry Styles pays tribute to Shania Twain
The former boy band One Direction, shirtless except for glittering disco ball overalls, dazzled his fans for his first time at Coachella. Harry Styles played some of his hits, but also revealed a new song, As it wasthe first single from his forthcoming album Harry’s House scheduled for May 20. He especially invited on stage Shania Twain, 56, Canadian pop-country superstar of the 1990s, from whom he covered several duet hits, such as Man! I Feel Like a Woman! and You’re Still The One, the opportunity to show the influence she had on him. “This lady taught me to sing“, he greeted. “She also taught me that men are bastards.”
The Empress sets fire in French in the text
On the French side, it is the group L’Impératrice, named in the hopeful category at the last Victoires de la Musique, which should be followed on Saturday afternoon at Coachella. The sextet, made up of six boys and one girl, the delicious singer Flore Benguigui, is not at their first concert in the United States, where they have already proven themselves in 2019. On the American continent, and especially in Mexico where they will soon be playing, their dancing pop with disco accents is a huge success. This fall, they will travel the continent with no less than 27 dates planned to defend their latest album, Tako Tsubo, cut to let loose under the disco ball. To see the enthusiasm of the crowd who came to cheer them at Coachella, we understand that the language barrier (Flore sings in French) is not one for them: their contagious groove speaks for itself.
Måneskin covers Britney Spears and the Stooges in SM outfit
Crowned last year at Eurovision with his title Zitti and Buoni, a hymn to non-conformism and freedom, then wrongly accused of having consumed drugs during the competition, the Italian heavy rock band is on its way to global success. In the United States, where Måneskin broke through with his cover of the tube Begin of the group of the sixties Four Seasons, their reputation is only growing and each of their appearances causes a sensation. Leather outfits, studded briefs and SM-style fishnets, heels, ruffled shirts, makeup, black painted nails, these genderfluid icons who campaign for the rights of the LGBTQI+ community did not go unnoticed at Coachella. The young quartet (three boys aged 21 to 23, and a bassist, Victoria, 21), took up the Womanizer by Britney Spears as well as I Wanna Be Your Dog of the Stooges, unleashing the crowd. The group ended with a message of support for Ukraine, with the singer shouting “Fuck Putin!“.
Danny Elfman takes home the weirdness award and plays the Simpsons theme
Despite the excess of madness offered by all the scenes, it was the film score composer Danny Elfman, 68, who admittedly gave the strangest concert of the weekend. He has indeed mixed for this show titles from his new wave years within the group Oingo Bongo with the original soundtracks he has composed for many films. At the head of an orchestra, he interpreted in particular the theme of The Simpsons, the music of The strange Christmas of Mr. Jack and that ofEdward Scissorhandsof Spiderman from 2002, as well as the two films Batman by Tim Burton. A good part performed bare-chested, (heavily tattooed on the chest), after tearing off his shirt…