With the temperature rising, music festival season is starting to bloom. The biggest music festival, Coachella, ran for two weeks beginning April 11-13 and ended April 18-20. Among the headliners are Lady Gaga, Green Day, Post Malone and Travis Scott. Other performances included Missy Elliot, Charli XCX, Japanese Breakfast, Marina, Megan Thee Stallion, Zedd and many more.
Lady Gaga was the very first of these openers, performing on Friday, April 11. In her set she performed for two hours, including some of her newest songs from her album Mayhem. With her extravagant set and costuming (as always) she performed “Abracadabra,” “Poker Face,” “Bad Romance,” “Paparazzi” and others.
On Saturday, April 12, Green Day opened Coachella. During their set, Green Day’s lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong, included a lyric change calling attention to the Gaza war. The normal lyrics to “Jesus of Suburbia” include “Runnin' away from pain when you've been victimized.” Instead, Armstrong changed this line to “Runnin’ away from pain like the kids from Palestine.” Green Day has never been one to shy away from changing their lyrics to fit the modern day— in this lyric change, the crowd at Coachella erupted in applause and cheers.
Clairo also performed on Saturday, April 12, with a guest to introduce her– Bernie Sanders, the Democratic senator for Vermont. Maxwell Frost, a U.S. House representative, accompanied Sanders as well.
Sanders gave a speech about the current Trump administration, touching on topics from climate change and the war in Gaza to and the current economy. “This country faces some very difficult challenges,” Sanders said. “And the future of what happens to America is dependent upon your generation. And you can turn away and ignore what goes on, but if you do that, you do that at your own peril.”
On Sunday, Post Malone finished out the first week’s performances with some of his most popular songs including “Circles,” “Congratulations” and finally closing with “Sunflower.”
Coachella 2025 will be remembered not just for its performances, but for its political undercurrent.
