the youngest headliner the festival had ever had, four of nsync on stage, and a tribute nobody was prepared for.
the short answer
she headlined coachella on the sunday night of april 2019, at twenty-five, becoming the youngest act ever to headline the festival. the set ran to over twenty songs, opened with god is a woman and closed with thank u, next, and featured four members of nsync, nicki minaj, and diddy and mase in a tribute to nipsey hussle and mac miller.
the record
youngest headliner in the festival's history at the time, at twenty-five. that is a fact about coachella as much as about her: the sunday headline slot has historically gone to rock acts a decade or two into a career, and giving it to a pop musician in her twenties was a repositioning of the festival as much as a booking.
the nsync reunion
the moment the set is remembered for. joey fatone, jc chasez, chris kirkpatrick and lance bass came out during break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored — the song that interpolates their it makes me ill — and stayed for tearin' up my heart. justin timberlake was not there; he had finished a tour of his own the night before.
the guests
- nsync, four of five, for tearin' up my heart.
- nicki minaj, for their own material — five years and four songs into that partnership by then.
- diddy and mase, for a run of nineties hip-hop, framed as a tribute to nipsey hussle, killed two weeks earlier, and to mac miller, who had died the previous september.
the state she was in
this is the part the retrospectives skip. april 2019 is seven months after miller's death, five months after a public engagement ended, two months after thank u, next came out, and the same month she posted the brain scan. she was crying on stage at points during that period and said so.
a headline slot at the largest festival in america, in that condition, is not a triumphant story and was not presented as one at the time. it is the same year as the sweetener world tour, which she played through two separate illnesses.
the set
over twenty songs, opening with god is a woman and closing with thank u, next — a shape that puts the two biggest statements of the previous eighteen months at either end and runs the rest of the catalogue between them. it was performed twice, on consecutive weekends, as coachella sets are.
questions people ask
when did ariana grande headline coachella?
april 2019, on the sunday night of both weekends. she was twenty-five and the youngest headliner in the festival's history.
did nsync reunite at coachella?
four of the five — joey fatone, jc chasez, chris kirkpatrick and lance bass. justin timberlake was not there.
who else joined her at coachella?
nicki minaj, and diddy and mase for a nineties hip-hop segment framed as a tribute to nipsey hussle and mac miller.
what did she open and close with?
god is a woman opened the set and thank u, next closed it, with over twenty songs in between.
why was the nsync appearance significant?
break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored interpolates their song it makes me ill, with their writers credited. the guest spot completed the reference in public.