Here's Why People Are Pissed About Frank Ocean's Coachella Set

Following his set last night during the first weekend of the annual Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Frank Ocean has pissed off a lot of fans.

The hype was impossible to live up to, really. The out, alt-R&B star was supposed to headline Coachella in 2020, but the festival was canceled that year for obvious reasons. Three years later, expectations were high for his first live performance in seven years. Unfortunately, many fans were let down.

Here's the tea.

Coachella is one of the largest music festivals in the world, and Ocean was selected to close out the festival this year on Sunday night, arguably the slot for the biggest performance of the weekend. Fans travel from all over the world to attend, and Ocean fans were especially inclined to for his only live performance in over half a decade.

Visitors on the ground were suspicious if Ocean would even show up, as he had zero merch for sale. Merch tents even went so far as to hang up "NO FRANK OCEAN MERCHANDISE” signs so people would stop asking.

Fans at home first got a hint that something was wrong when it was announced just a few hours before his set that it would not be live-streamed on YouTube, the only festival performance not live-streamed besides Bjork's. Many fans took to TikTok to plead with any and everyone at the festival to go live during the set.

Ocean was set to begin performing at 10:05pm, but according to Billboard, he didn't actually come onstage until 10:55pm. When Ocean finally did walk out, he transformed the entire stage into a screen so large that he was blocked from most of the festivalgoer's views. It seems as if he wanted the stage to feel small and intimate, like a recording studio, but that made the singer seem like he wasn't even there for viewers in the back.

There were some cool moments. Ocean performed a couple of songs live, including beautiful renditions of "White Ferrari," "Godspeed," and "Novocane," shared dance remixes of "Chanel" and "Solo," and even hinted at new music.

“I want to talk about why I’m here because it’s not because of a new album… Not that there’s not a new album,” he said before opening up about the passing of his 18-year-old brother, Ryan Breaux, who died in a 2020 car accident.

But it wasn't exactly a triumphant return to the stage for Ocean. Most of the songs played during the 30 minutes he was on stage were just the track, and Ocean vibed along to them. Fans by and large were rather disappointed, with many Coachella goers leaving Ocean's set early.

He let DJ Crystalmess take the stage for a cool remix of "Slide," which was followed by a low-key cover of the Aaliyah classic "At Your Best (You Are Love)," but then his set ended abruptly when Ocean announced from backstage, "Guys, I’m being told it’s curfew, so that’s the end of the show.”

It was an awkward, clunky performance with long stretches of silence between tracks, a dearth of live vocals, and a mysterious lack of Ocean's biggest hits including "Thinking Bout You" and "Lost." That, combined with Ocean's tardiness, left a bitter taste in people's mouths.

There are many theories circulating online about why what happened happened. Perhaps Ocean knew the performance was going to be messy, which is why the live stream was scrapped. There's also a rumor going around about an alleged ice skating performance that Ocean pulled the plug on at the last second, which seemingly sent both producers and Ocean into a spiral, but nothing has been confirmed.

Weekend 2 fans, myself included, are anxious to see Ocean's performance next Sunday – if he doesn't just back out altogether.