Frank Ocean will not perform at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival this weekend because of a leg injury, a representative for the singer-songwriter said Wednesday, noting that the injury had prevented his performance there last Sunday from going on as planned.
Ocean’s much-anticipated set on Sunday for the festival’s opening weekend was his first large-scale concert in years, but the set drew mixed reviews, with some calling out its tardiness and technical bumps. Later on, reports emerged that the set had been abruptly reconfigured ahead of the nighttime performance.
The statement from Ocean’s representative, Anna Meacham, said that he had suffered a leg injury on the festival grounds days before his first scheduled performance, leading to the preshow scramble.
“Frank Ocean was unable to perform the intended show but was still intent on performing, and in 72 hours, the show was reworked out of necessity,” the statement said. “On doctor’s advice, Frank Ocean is not able to perform weekend 2 due to two fractures and a sprain in his left leg.”
Representatives for Coachella did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the cancellation. The festival’s other headliners are scheduled to repeat from the first weekend — Bad Bunny on Friday and the K-pop group Blackpink on Saturday — with other performers throughout the weekend including Björk, Blink-182, Burna Boy, Gorillaz, Rosalía and many more.
Coachella has dealt with major last-minute cancellations before. Last year, Kanye West (now known as Ye) pulled out as one of the event’s three headliners amid personal upheaval and was replaced by the D.J. group Swedish House Mafia with the Weeknd as a special guest, a performance that was already on the bill.
Sunday’s performance had been years in the making, after the plan for Ocean to headline Coachella in 2020 was scuttled by the pandemic. This year’s festival was viewed as the singer’s re-emergence, but there were early signs that it was not going according to plan.
Most of the festival was livestreamed on YouTube throughout the weekend, and fans were anxiously awaiting the same for Ocean’s set, but late on Sunday, YouTube announced that it would not be part of the livestream. Ocean took the stage about an hour late, then ended abruptly, saying, “I’m being told it’s curfew.”
Some fans and critics complained that the singer was hard to see throughout the set — which included hits like “Bad Religion” and “White Ferrari” — and that there were pauses throughout. (Justin Bieber disagreed with the naysayers, writing on Instagram that he was “blown away” by Ocean’s performance and that “his artistry is simply unmatched.”)
The original plan for the performance was likely much more intricate than what Coachella attendees witnessed. Two hockey players, Dan and Chris Powers, said in a podcast released Tuesday that they had rehearsed for about a month with other ice skaters before they were suddenly cut from the show the day of.
In a statement on Wednesday, Ocean said of his set: “It was chaotic. There is some beauty in chaos. It isn’t what I intended to show but I did enjoy being out there and I’ll see you soon.”
Joe Coscarelli contributed reporting.
