Frank Ocean’s First Show in Six Years Sparks Backlash, Gives Us More Questions than Answers — 20 Watts Magazine | Premier Music Publication of SU

Frank Ocean’s Coachella set came an hour after schedule, featured a 10-minute dance interlude, saw Frank lip-sync some of his biggest hits, and left us wondering about a forgotten ice rink

By: Harry Sutton

On April 16, Frank Ocean performed for the first time in six years, resulting in one of 2023’s most surreal pop culture events. As Ocean hardly displayed any effort and awkwardly morphed some of his biggest hits into dance tracks, it wasn’t one of his best performances, but it was nonetheless remarkable. 

Merely hours before Ocean’s return to live audiences, it was announced that Ocean’s set would not be livestreamed online, making it the only show not aired. After swathes of fans crowded towards his stage in the hours leading to his show, he emerged nearly an hour after the scheduled time. 

Despite a deluge of social media panic, information reported in the days following Ocean’s set partially explains the confusion. Rolling Stone and TMZ reported that Ocean sprained his ankle while biking in the days before the show, meaning the Coachella staff had to redesign his set at the last minute.

Online speculation and aerial footage of an ice rink set had many fans convinced that they were going to see “Ocean on Ice,”  and reports from Coachella insiders confirmed that the rink and Olympic figure skaters were both part of the original show but got cut at the last minute. Unfortunately, Frank’s reported injury meant this glacial galavant had to be reworked, forcing the Coachella staff to deconstruct the approved set, melt the entire ice rink, and redesign the set with Frank’s new idea on the day of the show.    

This is supposed to explain the lack of energy and hour-long delay, but something doesn’t seem right, considering Ocean didn’t mention the issue once during his show. And fans are still left wondering why the show wasn’t live streamed on YouTube. With Ocean obstructing himself from view both for the crowd and camera for most of the performance, many fans were left disappointed by his return. Due to the lack of effort and the assumed fortune Ocean made for headlining, he’s received unprecedented backlash for the show. To no one’s surprise, he pulled out of his Coachella week two performance days after the show.