Why Frank Ocean's Eyebrow-Raising Coachella 2023 Performance Was Cut Short

Frank Ocean's Coachella 2023 performance is making waves, but not in the way you'd expect.

The Grammy winner was the third and final headliner at the three-day Indio, Calif. music festival. While the April 16 show—Ocean's first concert in nearly six years—was hotly anticipated, his stage comeback ultimately left fans scratching their heads after it was riddled with complications, including an disjointedly abrupt end to his set.

As seen in a video circulating on Twitter, the 35-year-old cut his performance short by announcing to the crowd, "Guys, I'm being told it's curfew, so that's the end of the show. Thank you so much."

What's worse for concertgoers, Ocean's set had already been shortened due to a delayed start. The "Thinkin Bout You" singer did not hit the stage until almost an hour after its advertised time, with the first five minutes featuring a group of people silently walking around in a circle on stage with Ocean nowhere to be found, according to Variety.

And when Ocean did finally appear, belting out the first lines of his 2011 hit "Novacane," he was hardly seen given how he had tucked his microphone in a small area at the back of the stage. His position also made it hard for the cameras to capture him, leading to largely shots of the back of his head being shown on the stage's giant LED screen. 

"trust me you did not want to be watching frank ocean," one Coachella attendee tweeted, while a second fan wrote that Ocean's set "had to be the worst I've ever experienced and he's my fav artist lmao."

Other aspects social media users took issue with included how Ocean's show was not livestreamed on Coachella's YouTube channel, unlike almost all of the other performances from this year's festival. "Started the set late, didn't let them live stream it, now ending the set early," a third fan remarked. "frank ocean you will rue the day."

However, there were still several highlights from the show. A security guard twerking along to music made for a buzzy moment, as did Ocean alluding to new music.

"I wanna talk about why we're here, because it's not because of a new album," he told the audience in a video captured by a fan. "Not that there's not a new album, but there's not right now."

The Channel Orange artist also briefly touched on the death of his 18-year-old brother Ryan Breaux, who passed away in a car crash in 2020. "My life's changed so much," he said, before recalling how he and his brother used to attend Coachella. "I know he would've been so excited to be here with all of us."

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