Here are 10 artists, from Bad Bunny to Blink-182 to Rihanna, who could make for killer headliners at this year's festival.
Although the 2023 edition of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival is still a few months away, kicking off on Apr. 14 in Indio, Calif., we should know which artists will be headed to the desert this year imminently. The Coachella lineup is typically unveiled in early-to-mid January, which means it’s just about time to submit final guesses for the artists who’ll headline this year’s edition of the three-day festival.
Which superstars will top the 2023 lineup? After Coachella boasted Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and a combo of Swedish House Mafia and The Weeknd as headliners last year — their first year holding the fest this decade, after having to cancel both the 2020 and 2021 incarnations due to pandemic-related concerns — speculation for who’ll follow in their footsteps has reached a fever pitch on social media.
Some artists who have the star power of a Coachella headliner are out of the running for this year, due simply to logistics: Taylor Swift and Paramore, for instance, both have tour dates on their respective 2023 itineraries that conflict with the Coachella dates, and are thus not viewed as potential performers. And a couple of these predictions may be a little far-fetched, since some have not announced themselves as active in 2023. That’s why we’ve separated these guesses into categories, from strong possibilities to pie-in-the-sky wishes. Once the full lineup drops, we’ll see how close we came to calling our shot.
Here are our best educated guesses as to who will lead the Coachella 2023 bill:
Frank Ocean
Likelihood: Strong possibility
Ocean, who was originally booked to perform at the 2020 edition of the festival (which was canceled due to the pandemic), was previously announced as a 2023 headliner. After making his debut on a side stage at Coachella in 2012, Ocean is the type of slam-dunk headliner that Coachella (or any festival) would want to top a bill.
Although the R&B superstar has proven to be an elusive live artist, particularly in the nearly seven years since the release of 2016’s Blonde, Ocean is presumably still topping the bill one night this April. If he does, it will be one of the most highly anticipated performances of the year, regardless of who else joins him as a headliner.
Bad Bunny
Likelihood: Strong possibility
The Puerto Rican megastar finished 2022 as the year’s top touring act, with a total gross of $373.5 million from 1.8 million tickets across 65 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore. The stadium shows served as an exclamation point on an enormous year for Bad Bunny, whose Un Verano Sin Ti album spent more weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart than any set in 2022, and could become the first predominantly Spanish-language album to win the album of the year Grammy next month.
Similarly, a Coachella headlining slot would make Bad Bunny the first-ever Spanish-language artist to close out the festival’s main stage. Although he has no North American performances scheduled for this year, and hinted at taking 2023 offafter a jam-packed 2022, that bit of history may be too enticing to pass up.
Rihanna
Likelihood: Strong possibility
Two months and two days before Coachella kicks off, Rihanna will return to the stage with millions watching, as she headlines the Super Bowl LVII halftime show in Glendale, Ariz. on Feb. 12. Could she follow up her Super Bowl debut with her first-ever proper Coachella performance, after showing up to Indio as a surprise guest in the past?
Social media rumors are swirling that the halftime show will precede a long-awaited Rihanna tour and/or Coachella set, and although Rih unveiled a pair of songs on the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack late last year, the follow-up to 2016’s Anti remains unannounced for now. Rihanna is one of the more notable pop superstars who has yet to headline Coachella, and now that she’s returned to the music world, 2023 may officially be her year.
Dua Lipa
Likelihood: Strong possibility
Although the U.K. pop star spent much of 2022 on the road, finally touring behind her hits-packed 2020 album Future Nostalgia, that sophom*ore LP will be more than three years old by the time Coachella 2023 rolls around. While she hasn’t given an indication that LP3 is coming soon, Lipa is one of the more prolific pop stars working today — last year she found time to roll out new collaborations with Megan Thee Stallion and Calvin Harris in between tour dates. Perhaps she could hit the desert with a new single, and with plenty of arena-sized hits to fill out a headlining set.
Drake
Likelihood: Strong possibility
Amazingly, Drake hasn’t headlined Coachella since 2015, when he was supporting his If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late project. Back then, he hadn’t earned a single No. 1 song on the Hot 100 chart, and now he has 11 of them.
A handful of artists, from Arcade Fire to The Weeknd, have closed out the Coachella main stage more than once over the course of their careers, and Drake certainly has the stature to do so. While he hasn’t mounted a proper tour in nearly a half-decade, Drake has released three albums (Certified Lover Boy, Honestly, Nevermind, and Her Loss, the latter alongside 21 Savage) in the past 18 months, so he has plenty of new material to mesmerize huge crowds with.
SZA
Likelihood: Keep an eye on…
SOS, SZA’s long-awaited sophom*ore album, has been a smash success since its release last month, topping the Billboard 200 for the third consecutive week and spawning the R&B star’s highest-charting solo hit to date with “Kill Bill.” Her North American arena tour in support of the album kicks off on Feb. 21, then ends three weeks before Coachella. Perhaps a headlining performance can punctuate a lucrative live run?
Blackpink
Likelihood: Keep an eye on…
The K-pop girl group made history when they performed at Coachella in 2019, and after they scored their first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with Born Pink last year, the quartet spent the fall performing to arena crowds across North American and Europe. A Coachella return — this time as headliners, and the first K-pop headliners at that — would be triumphant. And while Blackpink has tour dates scheduled across Asia in the spring, none of the shows on their itinerary conflict with the Coachella dates in April.
Blink-182
Likelihood: Keep an eye on…
Rock bands used to headline every night of Coachella; now, their presence as night-closers is sporadic at best. But the return of the classic Blink-182 lineup — Tom DeLonge rejoining the fold with Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker, with an upcoming album in tow — has generated a ton of excitement from casual fans and pop-punk diehards alike, as Blink has announced a 2023 arena trek and multiple festival headlining slots. And while the California trio’s first reunion shows are scheduled for March in Latin America, Blink has a big gap in tour dates around the Coachella dates, and could make their U.S. return at the festival.
Olivia Rodrigo
Likelihood: You never know, right?
It’s highly unlikely that the breakout star of 2021, who wrapped her Sour tour last July, will become essentially the first-ever Coachella headliner to only have one album to their credit — or that she’ll even be ready to roll with new music by April. And yet: Few albums this year will be as highly anticipated as Rodrigo’s sophom*ore LP, and if she did play this year’s Coachella, either with or without a suggestion of new music, her audience at the fest would be sprawling. Imagine bellowing the “Drivers License” bridge in the desert, and you’ll be convinced that this would an incredible booking.
Kate Bush
Likelihood: You never know, right?
Well… after the “Running Up That Hill” explosion last year, one can dream, no? That said, the impossibly reclusive legend probably won’t be performing her first show in the United States ever at Coachella 2023. But Stranger Things have happened.
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