Headlining Coachella sets from Harry Styles and Billie Eilish featured some iconic surprises
Shania Twain joined Harry Styles on stage the first night of Coachella, and Damon Albarn performed with Billie Eilish on the following night
This year’s Coachella lineup might’ve seemed very “how do you do, fellow kids,” with two out of three headliners being born after the release of Nirvana’s Nevermind. But at least the younglings used their time on stage to invite older icons to perform with them.
On the first night of Coachella, Harry Styles invited Shania Twain—while wearing matching sparkly outfits— to join him onstage to perform two of her biggest hits: “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” and “You’re Still The One.”
After the performance, Twain tweeted, “Music icon. Fashion icon. And true friend ❤️ I am honored and thrilled to have joined @Harry_Styles onstage for his @coachella debut. What a magical moment!! And I mean c’mon… WHAT A SHOW 🔥 I’m a huge fan! Grateful we got to create this memory together – Thank you Harry.”
Continuing the trend of current younger stars bringing on stage the artists they grew up listening to, Billie Eilish had Damon Albarn join her onstage to sing one of his songs. No, they did not go with the predictable crowd pleaser “Song 2.” Instead, Eilish opted for one of Albarn’s more recent(ish) hits: Gorillaz’s “Feel Good Inc.” Albarn also sang Eilish’s “Getting Older” off the singer’s recent album Happier Than Ever during the set.
Albarn had sung Eilish’s praises in the same infamous LA Times interview from January where he claimed that Taylor Swift doesn’t write her own songs. At the time, he’d said that Eilish is “a really interesting songwriter” as a writing duo with her brother Finneas, and that he’s “more attracted to that than Taylor Swift” because Eilish’s music is “darker—less endlessly upbeat. Way more minor and odd.” He also referred to her as “exceptional.”
Styles and Eilish will take on Coachella again on April 23 and 24, respectively, so perhaps they’ll bring out more surprise guests the second time around.