Frank Ocean Takes The Stage For The First Time In 6 Years

Frank Ocean has finally made his return to the stage after six years without a public performance, but it didn’t come without hiccups.

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The elusive artist was announced as a Coachella headliner back in 2020, but because of the pandemic, fans didn’t get to see that plan come to fruition until last night, three years later. According to reports from Pitchfork, Frank Ocean took the stage on Sunday to perform reworked classics and deep cuts before cutting the show short due to a curfew.

The singer arrived about an hour late, opening his set with stripped-back versions of “Novacane,” “Come on World, You Can’t Go!,” “Crack Rock” and “Bad Religion.”

After playing a modular-synth rework of  “White Ferrari,” Ocean addressed the crowd for the first time, paying tribute to his late brother, Ryan Breaux, while also teasing a new album.

“Who’s on drugs tonight, who’s high right now?” Ocean began. “It’s been so long. Everybody I’ve talked to has said how long it’s been, so long, so long… but I have missed you. I want to talk about why I’m here, because it’s not because of the new album. Not that there’s not a new album, but there’s not right now. It’s not right now.”

He continued, “These last couple years my life changed so much. My brother and I, we came to this festival a lot. I feel like I was dragged here so much of the time. I hated the dust; I always dealt with a respiratory infection,” he recalled. “I know he would’ve been so excited to be here with all of us. I wanted to say thank you for the support and the ears and the love for all this time. I’m gonna get back to the songs.”

He followed that up with more music, later ending the show abruptly because of curfew.

Though it was announced prior that Ocean’s set would be livestreamed on Coachella’s Youtube channel, fans ready to watch at home were disappointed to find the performance taken off the schedule just a few hours before Frank was set to perform. It’s not clear why his performance ended up being pulled from the stream.

Additionally, some people dubbed Frank’s return “lackluster.”

Frank Ocean will return to the Coachella Stage next Sunday, April 23.