Coachella - that little festival that takes place in Palm Springs, California each April - has been renamed Beychella. On April 15, Beyoncé took to the festival’s main stage for a two-hour set, making up for her cancelled appearance in 2017 due to her pregnancy with twins Sir and Rumi. And boy did she make up for lost time, with both critics and fans praising the historic performance.
According to Corey Townsend at , the singer gave “the blackest performance Coachella has ever seen”, while Jon Caramanica at the said “there’s not likely to be a more meaningful, absorbing, forceful and radical performance by an American musician this year, or any year soon.”
Even Beyoncé herself couldn’t ignore the meaning of her performance. “Coachella, thank you for allowing me to be the first black woman to headline,” she told the crowd. “Ain’t that ‘bout a bitch?” A celebration of African American culture from start to finish, she sang “”, often referred to as the black national anthem, and opened the set wearing a .
Beyoncé’s performance also paid tribute to historically black universities and colleges (HBCUs) featuring marching bands and historically African-American fraternities and sororities. Top that off with a Destiny’s Child reunion, dance-off with Solange, and an appearance by Jay-Z, people took to Twitter to praise Queen Bey as she took her place on the Coachella throne.
Since the release of 2016's Lemonade album, Beyoncé has become more focused on giving status to both women and black people in the US, and this Coachella performance followed that thread, changing the status quo of often male-dominated music festivals.
For a festival that has a evolved from a predominately white male, indie lineup (the first ever Coachella featured Beck, Tool, Morrissey and Rage Against The Machine as headliners) to include more artists of colour (The Weeknd, SZA and Vince Staples also performed this year), there is something so satisfying about seeing Beyoncé's performance become bigger than the festival itself.
DJ Khaled even renamed the event #Beychella, which is a music festival we'd definitely buy tickets for.
