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Queen Beyoncé leads Coachella's evolution, as more women are included in the lineup

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Coachella has the most female artists in its history, but Beyoncé rules the buzz waves with her headlining performance.
Queen Beyoncé ruled Coachella Saturday, but a lot of young princesses prepared the way for her long-awaited grand entrance into what has become a very woman-friendly realm.
In a year in which the #MeToo movement has gone international, while the Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago has been slammed for its lack of female representation, Beyoncé’s rare festival appearance in Indio made Coachella appear inclusive.
She took the stage at 11:17 p.m. to a huge screaming throng on the main Coachella Stage and performed her hit, “Crazy in Love,” from her album, “Dangerously in Love.” Almost 125,000 people, counting all the people working for the Goldenvoice producers, are attending Coachella each day, and certainly a majority of the fans were in the audience Saturday to hear Beyoncé.
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She is almost undoubtedly the world’s most popular female artist. Forbes ranked her as the most powerful female in entertainment in 2017 – a year she took off to give birth to twins after originally committing to play last year’s Coachella. She shattered Instagram records when she announced she was pregnant and again with her first photographs of her twins. She’s the most nominated woman in Grammy history, having won 22 Grammy Awards.
Having Beyoncé sandwiched in a headliner slot between The Weeknd and Eminem ensured inclusiveness, and Goldenvoice President and CEO Paul Tollett joked that it made pay parity between the genders something he never had to worry about.
But the women who came before her Saturday also ensured a sense of gender parity at Coachella.
Throughout the afternoon, continuing all the way through the 9:15 p.m. performance by HAIM, featuring three singing sisters from Los Angeles immediately before Beyoncé on the Coachella Stage, you could find a female performer in almost every direction on one of the polo fields.
Chloe x Halle, who made cameo appearances on Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” recordings, drew an enthusiastic crowd in the Mojave tent at 1:50 p.m., while the DJ Kittens was playing in the mammoth Sahara tent, and Sudan Archives, a 23-year-old singer-violinist inspired by Sudanese fiddlers, was playing in the Gobi tent.
Following Sudan Archives on the Gobi, singer-guitarist Adrienne Lenker led the Brooklyn-based rootsy indie band Big Thief in several loose jams with intense guitar skills as well as a sense of humor, thanking her audience “for coming to this tent on Earth. I think we’re still on Earth.”
Meanwhile, on the Outdoor Theatre, Marian Hill, a band named after the librarian and the professor in the musical, “The Music Man,” featuring vocalist Samantha Gongol and keyboard artist Jeremy Lloyd, offered their 2016 hit, “Down,” while meandering through new material.
Nile Rodgers and Chic played a plethora of hits from the 1970s through this decade by artists ranging from Diana Ross to Daft Punk, and Rodgers reminded the audience that he played on, produced and often wrote those songs. But Kimberly Davis engaged the audience with her powerful vocals.
Sigrid, a Norwegian singer-songwriter who took the Gobi stage in a t-shirt and jeans cut-off at her knees, proved a pleasant surprise with her dynamic stage presence. She especially generated a roar on her song, “Plot Twist.”
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Angel Olsen and Alina Brazz also were given prime twilight-hour slots in the Gobi tent.
They were part of the most woman-friendly lineup in Coachella history. Of the 167 acts, most are male, but 38 female solo artists or groups and more than a dozen bands including women moves the needle towards parity. Conversely, Lollapalooza doesn’t have any women headliners and there were no female artists on the first four lines of its poster when the lineup for the August festival was announced last month.
But, on a day when everything seemed to start when it was supposed to and the weather was a little warmer than Friday, the guys also made an impact. David Byrne, the former frontman from the influential ‘70s and ‘80s band, Talking Heads, put on a show that was one of the weekend highlights.
Mixing songs from the Talking Heads repertoire, such as the African-influenced “I Zimbra” and “Born Under Punches,” and the crowd-pleasing “Burning Down the House” with songs from his solo career, including “Everybody’s Coming To My House” and “Toe Jam,” Byrne, 65 and appearing barefoot, provided fun nostalgia and quirky good times that showed he still has a personality that connects across generations. His 12-piece band, including six percussion instruments, marched in circles and danced simple jerky choreographies as Byrne sang, “We dance like this ‘cuz it feels so damn good.”
But Byrne ended his set with Janelle Monae’s “Hell You Talmbout,” adding new names of victims of violence as the ensemble shouted, “Say his name” or “Say her name.” It added real poignancy to a well-rounded show.
Fleet Foxes followed Byrne on the Outdoor stage and singer-guitarist Robin Pecknold acknowledged what an honor it was following the Talking Heads leader. He added a horn section to his band’s California sound-styled harmonies to make the guitar-driven quartet’s set a little more special.
For the most part, the afternoon and early evening didn’t feature many guest appearances. Tyler the Creator, from the collective Odd Future, gave a solo performance that journeyed across a range of emotions from the rhythmic, dance-inducing “I Ain’t Got Time” to the plaintive “See You Again,” about a man going off to war.
Coachella again featured a large number celebrities also attending parties throughout the Coachella Valley only loosely associated with the Goldenvoice-produced event. But the biggest celebrity in town was Beyoncé, the artist who has become music royalty after turning the ups and downs of her life into lemonade.

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