Is Frank Ocean performing at Coachella 2023?

Photo courtesy of @metmuseum

When rumors emerged last September that Frank Ocean was reportedly shopping the follow-up album to his 2016 masterpiece Blonde, fans quickly stopped in their tracks.

Ocean — who exited his deal with Def Jam Recordings following the release of his visual LP Endless — is now slated to headline Coachella’s 2023 lineup according to a new interview by the Los Angeles Times, reigniting the burning question of his impending return to music. Per Hits Daily Double, the report also states that Ocean’s attorneys have “been taking meetings and playing the music for execs as he plans his return.”

This comes after Ocean attended the Met Gala that continued a recent string of public appearances in late 2021. In August, Frank had announced his new line of luxury jewelry and his newly-founded company Homer, which consists of “fine and high jewelry pieces,” ranging from $395 to $1.9 million.

Sitting down with Financial Times in his first interview in over two years, Frank opened up about Homer’s inception — detailing his motivations behind business ownership, his journey into “hard goods,” his relationship with Virgil Abloh, his fashion inspirations and what he keeps locked away on his iPad — “until he’s ready to show the world.” Ocean is also in talks of directing his first feature film with production powerhouse A24 in the near future.

Releasing singles in “DHL,” “In My Room,” “Dear April” and “Cayendo” in 2019-20, Ocean looked to be gearing up for an eventual album release off these tracks. However, when his 18-year-old brother Ryan Breaux tragically passed away in 2020, any previous plans for a project were seemingly put on hold.

Now as Ocean continues to look for a deal that works for him, here’s hoping we see Frank do what he does best sooner rather than later.

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oachella has announced the dates of its 2023 festival, so music fans get ready to mark April 14-16 and April 21-23 in your diaries. With the best part of 10 months left to go, all the details are yet to be ironed out, but we do know that Frank Ocean will be headlining - and fans couldn’t be more excited.

Frank Ocean was initially announced as a headlining act alongside Rage Against the Machine and Travis Scott in 2020. But of course, the festival was postponed because of the pandemic. Since then, the event organisers have been trying to transfer the acts over to the new festival line-ups.

In an interview in the Los Angeles Times at the time, the event’s co-founder Paul Tollett said “Right now, it’s the Wild West. I’m just trying to be as fair as I can to artists and to the fans to make sure that eventually, they get to see everyone that we talked about.

Then, in August 2021, it was announced that Frank Ocean would be headlining... but in 2023.

Although some devotees were disappointed about having to wait, the final 2022 line-up included Harry Styles, Swedish House Mafia x The Weeknd, Billie Eilish, Megan Thee Stallion, and more - not so shoddy at all.

Now, it looks like Frank’s fans are allowing themselves to get excited about the idea of finally seeing him on stage, immediately taking to Twitter to share their excitement.

“If Frank Ocean is really headlining Coachella 23’ I’m there,” said one.

“Cause i REALLY need to b saving to see frank ocean at coachella next year,” said another.

“See the thing is i would actually book a flight just to see frank ocean at coachella,” said a third.

“I swear if frank ocean fr headlines coachella my whole life would be complete no lie,” said a pleased fan.

“I need to go to Coachella i would rather d*e than miss Frank Ocean performing again,” tweeted another.

This year’s line-up was subject to some high profile changes, as both Kanye West and Travis Scott dropped out of the festival. Scott cancelled his performance after the crowd crush at his Astroworld festival in Houston that left 10 people dead. West dropped out following a period of erratic online behaviour that included demanding Billie Eilish apologise to Travis Scott, and threatening Pete Davidson.

Artists often release new music to accompany headlining performances - so Ocean supporters are hopeful that 2023 will see some new tunes from the artist.

The last record released by Ocean was Blonde in 2016. It went on to be ranked number 79 in the Rolling Stones’ 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, was named the best album of the 2010s by Pitchfork, and went to number one on the US Billboard 200.

Instead of releasing new music, the artist has been putting his creative efforts into different projects: in early June it was announced that he was making a new film with super-cool creative studio A24. He also has a luxury jewellery brand, Homer, and opened a New York design-focused store for it in August 2021.

You can already register for advance Coachella ticket sale access. They are set to be released on June 17 at 10 am PT [5 pm GMT].

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