As artists and fans from across the globe are flocking to the desert for this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, African music is set to make its biggest splash yet.
South Africa’s Tyla, Nigeria’s Rema and Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 and Ghana’s Amaarae will take over the festival this weekend and next. Tyla was originally slated to perform at Coachella last year but an injury forced her to drop out. “It’s difficult because I want to go. It’s the moment that I’ve been waiting for,” she told Billboard in her cover story last March. “It’s not an easy decision, but it’s the right decision.” Seun Kuti, the youngest son of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti and leader of his father’s former band Egypt 80, made history as the first Nigerian act to perform at Coachella in 2012.
With this year marking Kuti and Beninese DJ AMÉMÉ’s second festival appearances, they join Burna Boy and Black Coffee as the only African acts to perform at Coachella multiple times, with the former taking over the main stage twice and the latter commanding three different stages in four different years.
Some of the biggest superstars from the continent have yet to take the stage on their own. Wizkid was included in the 2018 lineup but was “unable to make it into the country to join us,” Coachella wrote on X during weekend one; in a since-deleted X post, Wiz wrote that his “band had some visa issues.” But last year, he and Justin Bieber came out during Tems‘ set to perform their Billboard Hot 100 No. 9 summer anthem “Essence.”
Outside of Wiz, guest appearances during other stars’ sets have given African artists more opportunities to shine in the desert. When Doja Cat headlined the 2024 edition of the festival, she performed “Acknowledge Me” and “Shutcho” from her 2023 album Scarlet alongside The Joy, an a cappella group from her South African motherland. The five-member group incorporated Zulu lyrics in the latter track. Also last year, Fireboy DML appeared as a surprise guest during Spinall’s set to deliver a reimagined version of their “Sere” hit and during Jon Batiste‘s set to deliver the live debut of their collaboration “Drink Water.” And in 2022, CKay performed his global smash “Love Nwantiti (Ah Ah Ah)” during Pink Sweat$‘s set, as the R&B singer/songwriter/producer backed him up on the drums.
Billboard rounded up 13 acts from the African continent who’ve performed at Coachella before, in alphabetical order.
