Pop gains ground, rock bounces back, and the most interesting stuff might come from women and acts from overseas. Headliners Childish Gambino, Tame Impala and Ariana Grande represent rap, rock and…
The lineup for the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival finally dropped after a day-long tease on Wednesday, and if you’d been expecting the rumored headliners to be the real deal, well, at least you got the soon-to-retire Childish Gambino to close out the Friday lineup.
The other two headliners arrive as a bit of a surprise with Tame Impala atop the Saturday bill and Ariana Grande on Sunday, and no Kanye West, no Justin Timberlake as the rumors had it in recent months.
What else? Well, Coachella fans aren’t fans of promoter Goldenvoice making them wait, and teasing them with a handful of minor reveals on Wednesday. If anger is an energy, they generated enough to power the main stage by the time the lineup dropped.
As far as they rest of our instant reaction to the overall lineup of 150 or so acts? Pop seized even more of the spotlight, women are a stronger presence, and if you go to a lot of festivals around here there aren’t going to be a lot of big surprises. For more on those thoughts and a few more things we noticed, well, read on for our five takeways from the Coachella 2019 lineup, won’t you?
1. Pop on top: Lady Gaga headlined in 2017, with Beyoncé slaying as a closer last year, but Ariana Grande will surely be the purest pop to grace the main stage as a headliner in the 20 years of the festival (Madonna in the Sahara Tent back in 2006 doesn’t count).
