If there were any concerns that the second weekend of Coachella was going to be a little bit ‘After the Lord Mayor’s Show’, they were allayed on Friday night when Madonna made an unannounced – though previously rumoured – appearance during Sabrina Carpenter’s headline set on the main stage.
The Queen of Pop appeared at the moment in her show when Carpenter usually performs her ‘Juno pose’ (we’ll leave you to Google that one for yourself if you don’t know what it is). Instead of getting that, the two stars duetted on an abridged version of Madonna’s iconic 1990 hit, Vogue, before giving a live debut to Bring Your Love, a song from Madonna’s upcoming Confessions II album that has Carpenter as a featured artist.
Madonna then gave a fairly lengthy speech – both a call for unity and an explanation of astrology – before the energy was raised once again with a spirited version of 1989 hit Like A Prayer.
“It’s like… what do you do after that?,” Carpenter asked the crowd after Madonna had departed. “I need a drink.”
Although no one else could quite top that – Madonna is one of the biggest-selling artists in history, let’s not forget – this proved to be just the first of many big-name Coachella cameos over the weekend.
On Saturday, Olivia Rodrigo kickstarted her You Look Pretty Sad for a Girl So In Love era with a performance of new single Drop Dead alongside Addison Rae, and long-time Justin Bieber fan Billie Eilish later joined her hero on stage in hysterical fashion as he serenaded her with a version of 2009 song One Less Lonely Girl. SZA and, as last week, Dijon, were also on at Justin Time.
Other setcrashers over the weekend included Zara Larsson, who appeared during PinkPantheress’s set to sing a new PinkPantheress remix version of her hit Midnight Sun – PP was also joined by Janelle Monae, Blood Orange and Ninjairachi – and Billy Idol and Steve Stevens, who were invited on stage by Sombr for a version of Eyes Without A Face.
