Music

The 10 Best Moments Of Coachella 2019, Week One

Including the 'Baby Shark x Sandstorm' mashup we never knew we needed.

by Jared Richards  15 April 2019
Janelle Monáe at Coachella 2019

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Coachella 2019’s first week is (almost) done and dusted, complete with headlining sets from Tame Impala, Ariana Grande and Childish Gambino. Now, Vanessa Hudgens will again resume hibernation, and rest until next year, having been sated by ‘sunshine’, ‘live music’ and ‘good vibes’.

Over the past few days, there’s been a flood of articles, Tweets and grams of ‘iconic moments’ and performances from both the festival’s IRL attendees and those hawk-eying the YouTube live stream, which has made it pretty easy to miss something integral.

Like Kacey Musgraves catching stray horses at the ranch, we’ve lassoed together the best, weirdest and wildest performances and one-off moments from the first weekend. Here’s every moment you missed from Coachella 2019, week 1.

Lizzo & Tierra Whack Dance It Out With Janelle Monáe

Janelle Monáe’s Friday night set was huge, filled with multiple costume changes, a full band and a giant throne. But audiences got a surprise when she brought out Lizzo (who recently interviewed her for Them’s first cover story) and Tierra Whack, who had one of 2018’s best (and shortest) albums. The trio twerked it out to Monáe’s ‘I Got The Juice’, and the winner was anyone watching.

Later, on Sunday, Lizzo performed as Monáe watched from the side, filming like a proud mum.

Kacey Musgraves Trolls The Crowd

Country-pop crossover star and Grammy Album Of The Year artist Kacey Musgraves made her audience look like fools during her sunset Friday set by trolling them with a call-and-response.

“When I say ye, you say haw!”, she asks. They get a few in before she extends the mike out to the crowd without saying anything, to which they say “Ye!”

They were wrong to do so. “I didn’t say fucking Ye!!”, she screams.

DJ Jauz Destroys Music Forever, Plays ‘Baby Shark x Sandstorm’ Mashup

Last year, San Fran’s DJ Jauz teased a remix of ‘Baby Shark’, that ‘do-do-do-do’ song that went around the internet for reasons unknown. He finally dropped it mid-set, and, suffice to say, it went off. Then, two minutes in, he changes tact, screaming into the mic “We’re not done yet, motherfuckers!”.

We then hear a very familiar ‘dun-dun-dun-dun-dun’, and a hyper-‘Sandstorm’ begins to play. Is it the worst thing we’ve ever heard, or the best? Why is my nose bleeding?

Childish Gambino Smokes A Joint With A Punter Mid-Set

Donald Glover set up his Friday headlining set as a church (think of it as a ‘pre-Good Friday Friday Service’), one where phones were put down and he asked people to ‘feel’ it out with him.

At the very least one fan disobeyed, but praise them: we’ve got a video of Glover ‘feeling it out’ by smoking a blunt with someone mid-set, then telling them to keep it and get high. Now that’s what I call Coachella, baby!

 Cardi B Makes An Appearance

After an Earth-shattering set last year off the back of debut album Invasion Of Privacy and while five-months pregnant, Cardi B returned for a surprise appearance during DJ Snake’s set. She performed her verse in ‘Taki Taki’ alongside the song’s other features, Selena Gomez and Ozuna.

Billie Eilish Is Considerably Late, And No One Cares

When We’re 30 Minutes Late, Where Have We Been? Turns out it doesn’t really matter too much, as the pop wunderkind made the most of her time on-stage, and performed a full set regardless. Similar to Cardi B last year, Eilish was booked before she blew up, and played the second day’s penultimate set with a headlining attitude.

Blitzing through half of her songs, the 17-year-old was high-energy and drama — even if she forgot the words to her own song, and special guest Vince Staples performed with a bung microphone.

Tame Impala Have A UFO

Saturday night headliners Tame Impala took their psychedelic visuals to the next level thanks to a floating neon UFO.

Kevin Parker and co. might’ve breezed through the band’s best and newest songs, but we can only imagine there were a lot of people freaking out in the audience.

K-Pop Makes Coachella Its Bitch Thanks To Blackpink

Blackpink are the first K-pop girl group to perform at Coachella, and they proved exactly why K-pop is producing some of the world’s most exciting music at the moment. Just two weeks ago, the band released their Kill This Love EP with aims to crack the US market, and judging by the size of the crowd, you can consider this a done deal.

Hopefully, this means that more and more K-pop groups pop up not just at future Coachellas, but more major music festivals around the world. BTS for Splendour 2020? A boy can dream.

HER, Kid Cudi, Childish Gambino And More Pay Tribute To Nipsey Hussle

Anderson .Paak, Childish Gambino, Kid Cudi, HER, Jaden Smith and YG all dedicated songs to the late Nipsey Hussle during their sets, lamenting a life lost to gun violence last month.

Cudi dedicated his final song, ‘Pursuit Of Happiness’ to both Hussle and Mac Miller, while Childish Gambino mentioned them both and his own recently deceased father in a long, emotional speech.

“What I’m starting to realise, all we really have is memories at the end of the day, that’s all we are,” he told the audience.  “All we are really is data. You pass onto your kids, you can pass it on to your friends, your family. The problem with us, millennials like everybody here we have so much data, like, we know what’s going to happen.”

“There’s a hundred thousand of you out here right now. There’s a good chance that some of y’all—at least one of y’all—won’t see next week. So what I’m saying is while you’re here, while we’re here, feel something and pass it on.”

Ariana Grande Brings Out *NSYNC, Nicki Minaj …And The Black Hole

Ariana Grande’s weekend-closing set is on right as we type, but we couldn’t hit publish without adding in what just happened: *NSYNC just came out to perform a few lines of ‘Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored’, which samples their song ‘It Makes Me Ill’.

Justin Timberlake wasn’t present, but it doesn’t matter — the new and improved Grande-featuring boy band also performed their ’97 hit ‘Tearin’ Up My Heart’, and we didn’t miss the noodle-haired member at all.

Grande also projected the history-making first ever picture of a black hole onto the stage during ‘God Is A Woman’, which is a neat nod to Dr. Katie Bouman, who coded the algorithm that made it all possible.

Nicki Minaj also joined Grande for a back-to-back of two of their songs, ‘Side To Side’ and ‘Bang Bang’, though a few sound issues left the two unable to keep up with the backing track, so they danced and laughed through it.

Feature image via Coachella Facebook.

Jared Richards is a staff writer at Junkee, and co-host of Sleepless In Sydney on FBi Radio. Follow him on Twitter.