5 must-see artists from the Coachella 2020 line-up

Maybe the most talked about music festival on the planet, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California returns again this April, taking place over two weekends: 10–12 and 17–19 April. With last week’s line-up announcement bringing quite a few surprises, we’ve narrowed down the top acts you need to see at Coachella 2020.

Rage Against The Machine

Let’s start with the most obvious must-see performance! Rage Against The Machine couldn’t have timed their comeback any better with the current political climate we’re living in. The Friday headliners have reformed recently for five shows (Coachella being two of them) after disbanding Prophets of Rage, which consisted of all band members except vocalist Zack de la Rocha—who left the band in 2000 after nine years as frontman. With their roots in activism, festival-goers should expect a politically-charged performance from these rap-rock legends.

Hatsune Miku

Get ready for an unreal set from Hatsune Miku…literally. The past few years has seen the virtual music scene steadily grow, and vocaloid CGI idol Hatsune Miku is probably the most-well known, having previously supported Lady Gaga on a world tour, collaborated with Pharrell and appeared on David Letterman. There’s a whole team of people that bring Hatsune Miku’s hologram to life on stage, including a live band. Prepare for a varied setlist, as Hatsune Miku’s songs are actually made by creatives who have downloaded the vocaloid software and recorded the songs themselves—meaning there are over 100,000 songs available!

Danny Elfman

It seems that music fans were most shocked by the appearance of film composer and Oingo Boingo frontman Danny Elfman on the Coachella 2020 line-up. Having composed scores for cult classics such as Nightmare Before Christmas and Edward Scissorhands, you may know his work best from The Simpsons theme song—leaving festival-goers pondering what the performance will actually be! Personally, we hope he’ll come out dressed in full Jack Skellington costume.

BigBang

Before BTS paved the way for other K-pop stars to claim international fame, there was BigBang—South Korea’s biggest boy band. Since their debut in 2006, BigBang, formed of G-Dragon, Taeyang, T.O.P, Daesung and Seungri have led the Korean wave. The five-member group went on hiatus in 2017 when they started their two-year compulsory military service, but the group are now down to four as Seungri quit the band amid criminal investigations in 2019. This will be the group’s first US show in five years, and what better platform to have a comeback than at Coachella?! We’ve got our lightsticks at the ready for what we think is BigBang’s biggest banger, Bang Bang Bang.

Lana Del Rey

As well as the backlash at the lack of female headliners, many people seemed surprised at Lana Del Rey’s low placement on the Coachella 2020 line-up poster considering the success of her latest album Norman F***ing Rockwell, which even received a Grammy nomination—not to mention the fact she even has a song called Coachella – Woodstock In My Mind! Since the latest album was released, it seems Lana has been very busy—with a spoken word album being released soon, and a rumoured EP on the way titled White Hot Forever. Despite her disappointing placement on the line-up, we’re glad the celebrated songstress is back to bring some soulful pop to Coachella, because Coachella 2020 just wouldn’t be complete without her.

Need a reminder about what happened last year at Coachella? Check out our article on the best and worst parts of Coachella 2019!

Don’t forget to let us know if you’ve got plans to go to Coachella in 2020!