Watch BLACKPINK make history with their headline Coachella 2023 set

16 April, 2023

BLACKPINK

BLACKPINK closed out the second night of Coachella 2023’s first weekend, making history as the first Korean group to headline the festival. It follows their debut appearance in 2019, when they were the first female K-pop act to perform at the festival altogether.

Prior to BLACKPINK arriving onstage, their set opened with a lengthy light show with drones in the sky. The group then opened their set with ‘Born Pink’ single ‘Pink Venom’ and 2019’s ‘Kill This Love’. The first portion of their set also included ‘How You Like That’, ‘Pretty Savage’, ‘Kick It’ and ‘Whistle’.

All four members then performed solo songs. Jennie performed an updated version of ‘You & Me’, an unreleased track she has been performing as part of BLACKPINK shows since late 2022. Jisoo performed debut solo single ‘Flower’, which was released last month and has only been performed live a handful of other times.

Rosé then performed ‘R’ songs ‘Gone’ and ‘On the Ground’. Lisa closed out the set’s solo portion by performing 2021 single ‘MONEY’. Watch footage from those performances below:

For the third and final segment of the set, BLACKPINK performed the likes of ‘BOOMBAYAH’, ‘Lovesick Girls’, ‘Playing with Fire’, ‘Typa Girl’, ‘Shut Down’, ‘Tally’ and ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’. They closed out their set by performing ‘Forever Young’.

While their headline set was taking place, it was announced on social media that BLACKPINK will return to North America later this year for four encore performances. Those will take place in New Jersey, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles in August.

Earlier this month, BLACKPINK discussed their return to Coachella as headliners, following their debut at the festival in 2019. “We’re so excited and honoured to be able to return to Coachella as headliners,” Jennie told Billboard. “We had the best time in 2019 and can’t wait to experience the energy of the audience again. There are some nerves, but more than anything, we’re just ready to have fun.”

Meanwhile, Rosé said that it felt “absolutely unreal” to return as headliners. “I think performing for Coachella in 2019 was a moment that really woke us up as BLACKPINK – to be motivated, to dream on and dream big,” she said. “But we never expected anything as big as being the headliner of a festival we’ve all grown up admiring and hoping someday we could find ourselves in the crowd of.”

Bad Bunny headlined the previous night of Coachella (Friday, April 14), while Frank Ocean will close out the festival’s first weekend tomorrow night (Sunday, April 16). The festival will return for its second weekend across April 21-23. See the full line-up for Coachella 2023 here, with info on how stream every set live here.

Check back at NME all weekend for more reviews, news, interviews, photos and more from Coachella 2023.

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