Whereas Sunday (April 14) was the coldest night time of the primary weekend of Coachella 2024 — with many attendees holding heat by wrapping themselves in silver emergency blankets — you wouldn’t have recognized it by Doja Cat.
Closing out the pageant as its Sunday night time headliner, the rapper carried out a whole lot of her present whereas carrying a white fur two-piece outfit, trying scorching in each sense of the phrase even if temperatures have been within the excessive 50s and a biting wind was blowing throughout the polo discipline.
Irrespective of. With the efficiency, Doja squashed debate about whether or not she was a large enough star to headline Coachella — not by pandering to the viewers, however simply by embracing her signature strangeness. Assume playful wigs, a mud pit, a pretend Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, dancing yetis and different parts introduced with complete dedication to the bit. This efficiency occurred upon an industrial, multi-tiered stage rig constructed from scaffolding and a number of walkways jutting out into the gang, a setup upon which Doja and her crew of dancers prowled.
Altogether, they not solely crammed the house — a major process on a stage that dimension — however made it their very own. The efficiency (which was very brief on crowd banter) was a contact theatrical, however by no means felt inauthentic, in the end functioning as both a reminder of or introduction to Doja’s charisma, expertise and oddball sensibilities.
Nevertheless it wasn’t a greatest-hits set, with Doja completely avoiding smashes like “Lady” and “Say So,” and as an alternative specializing in more moderen materials, a lot of it — “Demons,” “Fuck the Women” “Acknowledge Me,” “Gun” — from her 2023 album, Scarlet, and its deluxe version, Scarlet 2: CLAUDE, that dropped earlier this month. With the efficiency, Doja turned solely the second Black lady to headline Coachella, following Beyoncé’s landmark Beychella set in 2018.
Under, discover 5 of the most effective moments from her Coachella 2024 headlining present.
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The Props
That aforementioned Tyrannosaurus skeleton got here out towards the tip of the present as Doja carried out “WYM,” with a crew of puppeteers making it chase her across the walkways that went out into the gang, having no clear connection to the tune however including one other sprint of kooky enjoyable to the present with its presence. The ultimate flourish was when, in the course of the show-closing “Moist Vagina,” the satellite tv for pc stage was remodeled right into a mud pit, into which Doja and her dancers crawled and bought themselves soiled. Go away it to her to do innuendo in a method that was putting, cool and fortunately messy.
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The Dwell Debut of ‘MASC’
Doja launched her latest observe, “MASC,” simply 10 days in the past, with the ballad about maturity (“Boy, we method too grown for this sh–“) getting its reside debut about halfway by her efficiency. The tune’s collaborator, Teezo Landing, got here onstage to carry out his half, rapping right into a microphone embedded right into a bouquet of flowers and carrying white soccer pads outfitted together with his signature spikes. Whereas his look was transient, the pair had chemistry and each of their voices sounded true to the tune.
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The Company
Along with Teezo Landing (and the aforementioned T-rex), Doja introduced out 21 Savage to do a verse on their January collaboration “n.h.i.e.” and A$AP Rocky to do his half on their just lately launched observe “URRRGE!!!!!!!!!!” Whereas these moments have been thrilling, not one of the visitors lingered onstage for all that lengthy.
However the visitor look that went on for awhile and likewise made Doja look the happiest was the aptly named The Pleasure, a 5 man a cappella group from South Africa. The Pleasure surrounded Doja in the course of the present’s first few songs, with its members — who, like her, have been dressed all in white — singing in Zulu and in attractive five-part concord. At one level, she simply stood in the course of them and appeared to soak of their sound, closing her eyes and flashing one among her largest smiles of the present.
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The Hair
Doja began the efficiency on the satellite tv for pc stage jutting out from the primary space, showing in a full hazmat go well with. It was a putting look that didn’t final lengthy, as she eliminated the hood to disclose an extended (like all the way down to her knees) almost white blonde wig. This hair and this colour of it could change into motifs of the present, with Doja performing with a cadre of dancers carrying head-to-toe lengthy white blonde fur fits, trying like glamorous yetis and inflicting a whole lot of white hair to swing round throughout their group efficiency of “Demons.” By this time, Doja was carrying only a bikini additionally outfitted with white blonde hair, after which eliminated her wig to disclose her bleach-blonde, tightly cropped hair. Throughout the remainder of the present she’d seem in a white fur bikini (regardless of the frigid temperature), a floor-length white fur jacket and different complimentary outfits fabricated from plastic and different shiny and furry supplies.
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The Outfits
Along with the aforementioned hazmat go well with and fur bikini, Doja additionally wore one other bikini outfitted with the identical lengthy white blonde hair that her preliminary wig was constituted of. One other outfit was a two-piece shorts and high set that made out of clear plastic, and given the nippiness issue, one couldn’t assist however really feel a bit relieved when she and her tightly choreographed crew of dancers all placed on floor-length (seemingly fake) fur jackets, with Doja’s in white and the dancers’ in black. A protracted phase of the present carried out from the highest of the scaffolding discovered her in reflective tights, a shimmery belted bodysuit and boots — and naturally, the present ended together with her merely coated in mud.
