The first weekend of the Coachella Valley Music+Arts Festival has come to a close and attendees will be the first to tell you that the first half of this year’s event wasn’t without its share of surprises. Here are some of those moments from Coachella weekend 1:
- Chris Glover, AKA Penguin Prison, checked into producer RAC’s Friday afternoon set in the Mojave tent to lend his voice to their 2012 joint effort, “Hollywood“.
- Welsh songstress Marina & The Diamonds emerged during British electro outfit Clean Bandit‘s main stage set on Saturday to debut their new collaboration, “Disconnect“.
- Este Haim joined Irishman Hozier for an energetic cover of The Time’s “Jungle Love” on Saturday.
- British EDM producer Duke Dumont brought out Irish singer-songwriter James Vincent McMorrow for an unidentified track that will likely feature on Dumont’s forthcoming album.
- On Saturday, Chris Brown surprised fans during EDM producer Deorro‘s set with a performance of their collaboration, “Five More Hours“.
- Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha both made appearances during Run The Jewels‘ Saturday night set.
- After officially announcing Rilo Kiley‘s breakup last year, Jenny Lewis presented former co-frontman Blake Sennett in the midst of her early Sunday evening set for a mini-reunion. The two performed the band’s 2004 hit, “Portions for Foxes” together. Lewis closed the set by bringing out the three Haim sisters for a rendition of new song, “Girl on Girl”, featuring the female trio.
- After Drake named a track on his latest mixtape after Madonna, the 56-year-old diva responded, “The lifelong ambition I still want to fulfill is to go on a dream date with Drake — and only kiss him.” Well, she made sure half of that dream came true on Sunday night. Attendees of Drake’s headlining set expecting guest appearances by album collaborators Big Sean or PartyNextDoor didn’t quite get what they imagined. Instead, Madonna materialized midway through the performance, dragging a chair behind her, and what went down next was pretty freaky. In perhaps the most talked about moment of the weekend, Madonna sat Drake down in aforementioned chair and performed a short medley before planting a long kiss on the Canadian rapper, more like a hungry cougar than like a virgin, saying “Bitch, I’m Madonna“, and exiting stage left. After the unanticipated smooch, Drake appears to be wipe an overload of lipstick from his mouth and asks the tens of thousands in the audience what the !%&@ just happened.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzBcq-iux_U
- Get well wishes are in order for British breakthrough singer-songwriter George Ezra. The 21-year-old made a statement the afternoon of his scheduled Coachella performance that he would not be able to perform due to a case of viral laryngitis.
- Experimental alt-rock duo Ratatat debuted “Cream on Chrome”, the lead single off their fifth album, due out this summer.
Some notable Jack White quotes from Saturday night’s 2-hour headlining set:
“Thank you to Tyler The Creator, St. Vincent, Run The Jewels and everybody else who played today”
“Clap your hands and put your f***ing cell phones down for five seconds.”
Dedicated songs to “anyone who’s been abandoned by their mother or father,” and “to all the transgendered people in the world”
“I hope you realize for a few seconds every single day, everyday that music is sacred. That music is sacred. That music is sacred! That music is sacred.”
