Grimes has apologised for her performance at Coachella, insisting she had a “bad feeling” before the show but has learnt a “big lesson” from it.
The Canadian singer-songwriter and producer appeared frustrated during the second half of her Saturday set at the Californian music festival, which seemed to be plagued with technical difficulties.
The 36-year-old, who has three children with Tesla founder Elon Musk, later explained that she was experiencing “sonic chaos” during the set and asked fans for forgiveness.
So real for this @Grimezsz
Watch the 2024 livestream now, only on @YouTube at https://t.co/j5uIbSOgaa pic.twitter.com/PrHEdLWnQe
— Coachella (@coachella) April 14, 2024
She also promised a “flawless” performance at the second weekend of the festival, held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California.
“I want to apologise for the technical issues with the show tonight,” Grimes said on X.
“I wanted to come back rly strong and usually I always handle every aspect of my show myself – to save time this was one of the first times I’ve outsourced essential things like rekordbox bpm’s and letting someone else organize the tracks on the sd card etc.
“I had a bad feeling beforehand not having run everything thru the cdjs myself and tho I flagged it I wasn’t insistent.”
Grimes, real name Claire Boucher, said she had learnt a “big lesson” from the performance, including to “pretend it’s fine and engage w the crowd rather than spend a whole show slumped over the desk trying to fix software when ur meant to be entertaining”.
I was not able to rehearse tiding on top of the mechanical spider for safety reasons so if I am unable to gracefully get off the spider plz forgive me
— 𝖦𝗋𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗌 ⏳ (@Grimezsz) April 13, 2024
“I will personally organise all the files next week. I will not let such a thing happen again,” she said.
“I’ve spent months on this show, making music and visuals, and admittedly am not in the best mood atm.
“But, yeh – next week will be flawless, everything will run thru my hands.
“Some good lessons learned. Bless y’all. The cdjs were showing me bpms like 370 so I couldn’t even mix manually by ear and the front monitors were off so it was literally sonic chaos on my end trying to guess how stuff was sounding for u guys.
“Plz forgive me.”
The Saturday line-up also featured several star-studded surprise appearances with Childish Gambino, Asap Rocky, Charlie Wilson and Kali Uchis appearing during the headline set of Tyler, The Creator.
Gwen Stefani brought US pop star Olivia Rodrigo on stage during a No Doubt reunion, and US rock band Vampire Weekend brought out reality star Paris Hilton to play an American game titled Cornhole – which involves throwing a bean bag into an angled board.
Spearheading the British acts was rock band Blur while Brit winner Raye said her next music project is “not what you expected”.
Doja Cat is set to round off the first weekend at Coachella on Sunday.
The Say So singer, who has a reputation for eye-catching and experimental looks after wearing cat-inspired prosthetic make-up to the 2023 Met Gala, is expected to don an eccentric wardrobe for the set.
Other performers include Victoria Monet, who scooped three Grammy awards at the 2024 ceremony for her debut studio album Jaguar II, including best new artist and best R&B album.
US songstress Bebe Rexha will also perform on Sunday, alongside Mean Girls actress and singer Renee Rapp, and Nigerian star Tems, who rose to fame after being featured on Wizkid’s 2020 single Essence.
British acts will also take to the stage on Sunday, including break-out star Olivia Dean, who was crowned the BBC Introducing artist of the year in November following in the footsteps of Arlo Parks and Tom Grennan.
The London-born star, who is a Brit School graduate alongside Adele and Amy Winehouse, will perform on the Gobi stage after an impressive 2023 saw her debut album Messy shortlisted for the Mercury Prize.
Meanwhile London-formed R&B three-piece girl group Flo – which includes Jorja Douglas, Stella Quaresma and Renee Downer – will perform on the Mojave stage after being named the winner of the 2023 Brit Awards Rising Star award.
The group are expected to perform their breakout anthem Cardboard Box, produced by Little Mix and Dua Lipa-collaborator MNEK, which received praise from rapper Missy Elliott and former Destiny’s Child star Kelly Rowland at the time.
Also on the Mojave stage will be Northern Irish duo Bicep, while Scottish electronic music producer and DJ Barry Can’t Swim will appear on the Gobi stage after London-based duo Jockstrap, comprising Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye.
