Frank Ocean fans dealt crushing blow in Coachella plot twist

Frank Ocean fans were dealt an unhappy plot twist hours before he took to the stage at Coachella.

The music world was delighted to learn that the elusive artist would be headlining California’s hottest festival on 16 April, only to be left crestfallen on the night.

Well, that’s not strictly true. If you managed to nab yourself a ticket to the big event you would have been treated to the man himself performing stunning renditions of hits including ‘Novacane’, ‘Crack Rock’ and ‘Thinkin Bout You’.

However, for the millions of stay-at-home Coachella followers who rely on experiencing their favourite acts via live stream, it was all a bit of a damp squib.

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YouTube’s Twitter account announced on Sunday afternoon: “Frank Ocean is not scheduled to appear on the Coachella live stream.”

Inevitably, people were not impressed as they scrambled to, at the very least, find mobile phone footage of his set posted to social media.

But at least Twitter users shared a taste of what it was like to be there:

Still, some of the lucky attendees voiced some frustration that, because he began his set late, he had to finish early due to a 12 am (local time) curfew imposed by the festival:

Ocean hasn’t performed live in years, other than a handful of DJ sets, which made his performance at Coachella this year all the more remarkable.

He was first announced as a headliner at the festival for 2020, but the Covid pandemic stopped that from happening, meaning fans had to wait another three years to see him.

It wasn’t till he’d finished his rework of ‘White Ferrari’ on Sunday night that Ocean addressed the crowd for the first time, telling them: “It’s been so long. Everybody I’ve talked to has said how long it’s been, so long, so long... but I have missed you.”

He went on to address rumours of a new album in the pipeline and pay tribute to his 18-year-old brother Ryan Breaux, who died in a car accident back in August 2020.

“I want to talk about why I’m here, because it’s not because of the new album. Not that there’s not a new album, but there’s not right now. It’s not right now,” he said, according to Pitchfork.

“These last couple [of] years my life changed so much. My brother and I, we came to this festival a lot. I feel like I was dragged here so much of the time. I hated the dust,” he recalled.

Thinking about Ryan, he continued: “I know he would’ve been so excited to be here with all of us. I wanted to say thank you for the support and the ears and the love for all this time.”

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