Frank Ocean leaves fans stunned and angry after bizarre Coachella headlining performance

The first weekend of Coachella 2023 ended on a bizarre — and disappointing — note as Frank Ocean left fans stunned and angry with his long-awaited headlining performance.

Ocean was set to play 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.

Given that chain of events and the fact that he had not performed live for six years, the anticipation was high for his set Sunday night. Eager fans camped out hours before the gates opened in the morning for a chance to rush to the main stage and linger there all day to secure a good spot for the set, which was supposed to begin at 10:05 p.m. PT.

But fans watching YouTube's official Coachella livestream at home were shocked when, only a few hours before Ocean was scheduled to go on, YouTube announced that his performance would no longer be shown online, 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.

Still, the crowd at the main stage kept growing as fans counted down the hours before Ocean was slated to kick off his set. However, they grew restless as 10:05 p.m. PT came and went with no sign of the musician. The screens behind the stage remained dark until almost an hour later when, at 11:00 p.m., a video began playing of a horde of people dressed in black with their hoods up walking around in a circle on stage. No sound played; the crowd watched the silent video for almost five minutes. Some audience members started shouting in anger, while a steady stream of them began leaving the area.

It wasn't until an hour after his scheduled start time that Ocean finally graced the stage — but the spectacle that followed did little to appease annoyed fans. 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 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. The stream of people exiting the festival only grew larger as the set progressed. When cheers erupted from the front of the crowd, other attendees yelled back, "What are you cheering for?!"

When Ocean eventually addressed the crowd on his microphone, he spoke about his late brother, Ryan Breaux, who died in 2020 at the age of 18 after a car accident, noting how his brother used to drag him to Coachella. He said he never wanted to go to Coachella because he would get "respiratory infections" from the dust, but he had many happy memories with his brother at the festival, like seeing rapper Rae Sremmurd perform. Ocean explained that it was the reason he agreed to headline this year's festival — it wasn't, to many fans' dismay, because he was promoting a new album.

"Not that there's not a new album," he added, though he quickly clarified after the crowd cheered, "Not right now. Just not right now."

The set continued to go downhill from there. Ocean performed only a few more of his songs — just snippets of "Self-Control," "Bad Religion," and the beginning of "Nikes." He chose to lip-synch many of his other tracks, wandering around the stage and mouthing the lyrics. He 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. The giant screens ended up panning over to a security guard who stole the show with his dancing (check out a video of that moment above) because, well, there was nothing else to watch.

Ocean performed a cover of "At Your Best (You Are Love)" before announcing 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." And just like that, the first part of Coachella 2023 was over.

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. As people made their way out of the festival, the mood was decidedly grim. Remarks ranged from "this guy sucks" and "that was so lame" to "what a waste" and "are you f---ing kidding me?!"

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.

On Monday, reports claimed 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. The people silently walking in circles? They were allegedly ice skaters who had been practicing for weeks and were now left with nothing else to do. 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 claims 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.

Ocean's most die-hard fans have tried to reframe the odd performance through the lens of his reputation as an enigmatic artist, but he likely lost and alienated many casual and new fans, both at the festival and at home (many tried to watch his performance via unofficial livestreams on social media). If this was meant to be Ocean's big return, it left many wondering why he even bothered to show up at all.

Representatives for Ocean, Coachella, and YouTube did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment.

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