Update 1/10/23: As rumors (and festival co-founder Paul Tollett) previously said, Frank Ocean will indeed headline Coachella 2023. He’s set to perform on day three of both weekends which land on the dates of April 16 and April 23. Frank joins Bad bunny and Blackpink as headliners for Coachella 2023. You can check out the full lineup for Coachella 2023 here.
Original Article 1/5/23: It has been a while since music fans last saw Frank Ocean on a festival stage. In fact, the disappointment in not seeing him as the surprise headliner for Camp Flog Gnaw in 2019 prompted some fans to boo Drake when he popped out to perform his biggest hits (at Tyler The Creator’s request, no less). Ocean, who was supposed to headline Coachella last year until it was rescheduled, is notoriously cagey about… well, everything, and hasn’t been active on social media in years.
However, Coachella co-founder Paul Tollett told Los Angeles Times in 2021 that the wait for Frank to headline the festival might soon be over. While admitting that the 2022 return festival (Coachella was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19) dates precluded Ocean’s performance, he predicted that Frank would be the headliner for 2023. While this year’s lineup has yet to be announced, the dates for the event — April 14-16 and 21-23 — were announced last summer ahead of the advance ticket sales. It’s expected that the lineup will be announced sometime this month, as the 2022 lineup was announced in mid-January, so staying tuned will be crucial to finding out if Frank will follow through on Tollett’s pronouncement.
Of course, if Frank is headlining Coachella this year, that begs another question: Will he also release a new album this year to go along with the performance? He cleared all his Instagram posts last September, which has traditionally been an indicator of big-name artists entering new “eras” but with Frank, who loves to move in mystery, all bets are best left off the table until he shows his hand.
