Frank Ocean headlined Coachella. It happened. Before Ocean took the festival’s main stage last night, there was a whole lot of speculation on whether the set would even happen, even though Ocean was initially announced as this year’s headliner three years ago. Most of the world didn’t get to watch Ocean’s return to the stage, but it happened.

Before last night, Frank Ocean hadn’t performed live since the summer of 2017. He was initially booked to headline Coachella in 2020, but that show didn’t happen for obvious reasons. For last night’s show, Ocean didn’t let Coachella stream it live on their YouTube, even though virtually every set of the weekend streamed. That left lots of people watching TikToks and Instagrams that were streaming live from people’s phones in the crowd, which wasn’t the experience that anyone wanted. Ocean arrived onstage nearly an hour late and didn’t sell any merch, but he was there. He played.

Ocean’s set opened with “Novacane,” the breakout single where he namechecked Coachella. During his set, Ocean performed many of his best-loved songs, but he often changed the arrangements around radically. He also played a lot of songs live for the first time, and he covered Aretha Franklin’s “Night Life” and the Aaliyah version of the Isley Brothers’ “At Your Best (You Are Love).” In the middle of his show, there was a rave DJ set from DJ Crystal Mess.

Ocean’s live show didn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, and he didn’t announce the new album that some people expected. While mentioning that there would be no new album that night, Ocean paid tribute to his late brother Ryan Breaux, who died at age 18 in a 2020 car accident.

Below, watch some videos from Ocean’s set last night — the quality, unfortunately, isn’t the best — and check out the setlist from the show, via Setlist.fm.

https://www.tiktok.com/@lifebymichael/video/7222916720275606827

SETLIST:
01 “Novacane” (new version)
02 “Come On World, You Can’t Go!” (live debut)
03 “Crack Rock”
04 “Impietas / Deathwish (ASR)” (live debut, shortened)
06 “Bad Religion”
07 “White Ferrari” (live debut, new version)
08 “Florida” (live debut)
09 “Pink + White” (acoustic)
10 “Solo” (new version)
11 “Solo (Reprise)”
12 “Chanel (Sango Remix)”
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DJ set
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13 “Godspeed” (live debut)
14 “Wise Man” (new version)
15 “Night Life” (Aretha Franklin cover)
16 “Self Control” (acoustic, with Frank on guitar)
17 “Nikes” (shortened)
18 “Nights” (mixed with Sango Remix)
19 “At Your Best (You Are Love)” (The Isley Brothers cover, live debut)