Frank Ocean drops out of Coachella 2023 weekend 2: 'It isn't what I intended to show'

He is not able to perform "due to two fractures and a sprain in his left leg," the artist's representatives have announced.

By

Sydney Bucksbaum

Published on April 19, 2023 06:07PM EDT

Frank Ocean has dropped out of the second weekend of Coachella 2023.

The musician will no longer perform as a headliner at the festival on Sunday, April 23, EW has confirmed.

"After suffering an injury to his leg on festival grounds in the week leading up to weekend 1, Frank Ocean was unable to perform the intended show but was still intent on performing, and in 72 hours, the show was reworked out of necessity," representatives for Ocean tell EW. "On doctor's advice, [the] artist is not able to perform weekend 2 due to two fractures and a sprain in his left leg."

"It was chaotic," Ocean said in a statement. "There is some beauty in chaos. It isn't what I intended to show, but I did enjoy being out there and I'll see you soon."

Ocean played the festival in Indio, Calif., as Sunday's headliner after years of delays. He was first slated as a top-billed artist for 2020's canceled event and then couldn't perform for its rescheduled 2022 dates, so he postponed again. But on Sunday night, after an hour delay, Ocean's long-awaited, bizarre set left fans stunned and disappointed. Only a few hours before he was scheduled to go on, YouTube announced that his performance would no longer be live-streamed, unlike those of the previous two nights' headliners, Blackpink and Bad Bunny. Rumors began swirling that the unpredictable and unreliable singer-songwriter might not even show up, fueled by the fact that signs were posted at the event later on Sunday letting festival-goers know that no Ocean merchandise would be on sale — unprecedented for a headliner of the massive fest.

When Ocean finally graced the stage an hour past his 10:05 p.m. PT start time, he was barely visible, sitting far back on the stage, pulling up his hood, and constantly turning his back to the audience. He didn't acknowledge the delay. While he did perform stunningly reworked versions of songs like "Novacane," "Crack Rock," and "White Ferrari," the silence between the tracks was long and awkward, eliminating any sense of flow and giving the impression that he was just winging it. He chose to lip-synch many of his other tracks instead of performing them, brought out a young piano player named Josiah to lip-synch one of his songs to represent his "inner child," and then DJ Crystallmess played an extended EDM remix of a bunch of his songs while Ocean left the stage.

After Ocean performed a cover of "At Your Best (You Are Love)," he announced at 12:22 a.m. PT, after another long and awkward silence, "Guys, I'm being told it's curfew, so that's the end of our show. Thank you so much." Confusion turned to rage and disappointment as fans realized that was all Ocean was going to give them, and that his own tardiness had caused him to cut his set short. Speculation immediately began circulating on whether Ocean even wanted to be there, if he would pull out of the upcoming second weekend taking place April 21-23, and if Coachella would replace him due to the backlash.

Then on Monday, reports surfaced that an ice rink had been built for the set but that Ocean decided to cut it at the last minute, causing the hour-long delay as the rink was disassembled. According to those same reports, it was Ocean's decision to scrap the livestream as well, souring the relationship between him and the festival's organizers. However, a source close to the situation said Ocean injured his ankle while riding a bike around the festival in the days leading up to his performance, which resulted in a change of the production to accommodate the injury. Skaters who were supposed to perform on the ice rink during the set criticized how they weren't informed about the change of plans until only hours before it was scheduled to begin.

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Frank Ocean drops out of Coachella 2023 weekend 2: 'It isn't what I intended to show'

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