Frank Ocean Suffered Ankle Injury Days Before Coachella, Led to Production Changes

Frank Ocean suffered an ankle injury at on-site rehearsals the week before Coachella, which led to production changes following doctors’ advice, Billboard can confirm.

According to TMZ, who first reported the news, one of the major production changes involved the use of an ice rink, which was built specifically for the headlining performance on Sunday (April 16). The skaters casted for the show still joined Ocean onstage despite the removed ice rink, and wore custom Prada as background dancers, according to a source close to the situation.

The source also noted that Coachella organizers loved the final product, which featured 20 songs including completely reworked versions of some of his hit tracks like “Pink + White,” “Solo,” “Chanel,” “Wiseman” and more. Ocean closed out his much-awaited set with his cover of Aaliyah‘s 1994 track “At Your Best (You Are Love)” that was featured on his 2016 visual album Endless. See Billboard‘s full recap here.

The elusive singer’s performance came three years since Ocean, Travis Scott and Rage Against the Machine were all slated to headline the 2020 edition of Coachella, which was postponed due to COVID-19.

It is still unclear why Ocean began his set nearly an hour late or how injury will affect his Weekend 2 performance, as he’s scheduled to take the stage again on Sunday (April 23).