Frank Ocean’s Coachella Performance Leaves Fans Disappointed
Frank Ocean performed at Coachella last Sunday, markedly returning for his first live performance in nearly six years. Fans were expecting it to be bombastic, but many left feeling disappointed.
The reason fans left disappointed was because the show did not go as promised. Festive Owl on Twitter detailed that they intended to have an ice rink and skaters all around the singer.
The reason behind the cancellation was due to an ankle injury. Ocean sustained the injury while rehearsing leading up to Sunday. A serious injury, Frank received evaluations from a few doctors. Telling the singer that he should not go out on the ice, and subsequently scrapping the concept.
Because of his injury Ocean was seated for most of the concert. Briefly standing to dance a little during some songs. Instead of skating, skaters now marched in a circle on stage around the singer.
The singer opened his set with the song Novacane and followed up with a few songs from the album Channel Orange like Crackrock and Bad Religion. Despite the scaling down of the performance, fans were pleased to hear some of their favorites.
Ocean hasn’t released a new album since 2016’s Blonde, but he has released some singles like Chanel and Provider. He played reworks of both songs at his performance. He notably played a new song called Inner Child, hinting at new album being on the way.
Ocean Sinks at Coachella
Despite being delayed 57 minutes, the performance was around an hour long. The issues with injury and set design were only the beginning. A curfew set by city ordinance cut the show significantly short as well.
Fans were unable to hear some of Ocean’s biggest hits like Pyramids and Thinking Bout You because of this time limit. Fans at home were disappointed as well, hearing last minute that Coachella would not be livestreaming the performance.
Ocean also briefly explained to fans that Coachella was a difficult place to be after the death of his brother in 2020. He said “My brother and I came to this festival a lot…one of my fondest memories was watching Rae Sremmurd with my brother.”
As one of the most highly anticipated shows at Coachella, the strangeness swirling around the performance was puzzling to fans. Ultimately, fans of Ocean have mixed feelings after Coachella.
On one hand they empathize with the singer and his difficulties, but on the other they did pay upwards of $500 to see him perform. Ocean will have a second performance in week two, and hopefully things will proceed according to plan. Hopefully both concert goers, and fans at home hoping to livestream the show, will be more satisfied.
Check out HipHopDX’s video elaborating on the situation here.