Fans react to Frank Ocean’s headlining set at Coachella

After six years away, Frank Ocean has finally returned to the live stage, closing out the first weekend of Coachella 2023.

Ocean was scheduled to headline Coachella in 2020, though that set did not come to fruition due to the entire festival being cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic at the time.

The set – which marks Ocean’s first live performance since 2017 – was initially announced for Coachella’s livestream on YouTube before being cancelled from the livestream schedule just hours before the set.

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Starting his set an hour later than planned, Ocean kicked off his Coachella headlining set with ‘Novacane’, his Blonded Radio release ‘Come On World, You Can’t Go!’, ‘Crack Rock’, ‘Bad Religion’, ‘White Ferrari’.

After ‘White Ferrari’, Ocean thanked his fans and explained why he was at Coachella. “It’s been so long but I have missed you. I wanna talk about why I’m here because it’s not because of a new album – not that there’s not an album, but there’s not right now”.

He shared that he used to attend Coachella with his brother before his passing, saying one of his fondest memories was watch Rae Sremmurd with his brother. “I know he would have been so excited to be with all of us and I wanted to say thank you for all the support and the love all these years,” Ocean said.

Ocean’s brother, Ryan Breaux, died in 2020 in a car crash.

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Following his short speech, Ocean continued performing with ‘Pink + White’, ‘Solo’, ‘Chanel’, ‘Lost’, ‘Slide’, ‘Provider’, ‘In My Room’, ‘No Church In The Wild’, ‘Godspeed’. He also performed two new songs before diving into ‘Self Control’, ‘Nikes’, ‘Nights’ .

After covering Aaliyah’s ‘At Your Best (You Are Love)’, Frank Ocean informed the crowd that the festival had hit its curfew limit and had to end his set.

Frank Ocean’s Coachella 2023 Weekend 1 setlist is:

  1. ‘Novacane
  2. ‘Come On World, You Can’t Go!’
  3. ‘Crack Rock’
  4. ‘Bad Religion’
  5. ‘White Ferarri’
  6. ‘Pink + White’
  7. ‘Solo’
  8. ‘Chanel’
  9. ‘Lost’
  10. ‘Slide’
  11. ‘Provider’
  12. ‘In My Room’
  13. ‘No Church In The Wild’
  14. ‘Godspeed’
  15. UNRELEASED NEW SONG
  16. UNRELEASED NEW SONG
  17. ‘Self Control’
  18. ‘Nikes’
  19. ‘Nights’
  20. ‘At Your Best (You Are Love)’ (Aaliyah cover)

Fans have had a mixed reaction to Ocean’s set, with some praising it while others criticised the singer for being late and ending his set abruptly.

Check out a handful of reactions to Frank Ocean’s set below.