Is Billie Eilish headlining Coachella?
The Happier Than Ever singer is joining Kanye West at the Empire Polo Club, according to Rolling Stone's and Variety's sources
Billie Eilish is headlining this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, according to Rolling Stone. The singer made her Coachella debut at the 2019 festival, which happens to be the last time the festival actually took place.
The 2020 and 2021 editions of the festival were both ultimately canceled due to COVID-19 concerns. The Coachella 2022 is currently set to take place April 15–17 and April 22–24 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, but in this third year of the pandemic, anything could happen.
Travis Scott was originally set as a festival headliner, but Coachella dropped him last month in the aftermath of November’s Astroworld festival tragedy, which left 10 people dead, including a 9-year-old boy. After the festival, thousands of people signed a Change.org petition to have Scott removed from the lineup. According to Consequence Of Sound, Scott and his team even offered to play the event for free if Coachella kept him on as a headliner, but the festival wouldn’t budge.
In October, Coachella announced Swedish House Mafia as a headliner as well. Kanye West is also reportedly in talks to headline a third day of the festival. West allegedly was almost named a headliner of the 2019 festival, but dropped out because organizers refused to build him a giant dome. West ultimately brought his “Sunday Service” to the second weekend of the festival, performing on Easter Sunday.
Of course, it’s fully possible that the 2022 festival will be canceled once again due to COVID-19. The 2022 Grammys, which were set to take place January 31, were indefinitely postponed earlier this week. Eilish is up for seven awards at the event, including Album of the Year for Happier Than Ever, and probably would have performed at the event.
Generally, things have been going pretty well for Eilish. In December, she hosted what was scheduled to be Saturday Night Live’s penultimate episode of the year and ended up being their last typical episode thanks to a COVID-19 outbreak on set. Last year, in addition to her critically acclaimed sophomore album, she also released a documentary, Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry. Maybe her good luck will rub off on a Coachella festival that needs the positive vibes.