During her Coachella performance on Friday, Lana Del Rey made a few highly anticipated cameos. She welcomed back her recent collaborators, Jack Antonoff and Jon Batiste, who will both be headlining their own sets later in the weekend. But she also welcomed a much less expected guest, Billie Eilish, who showed up for an unexpected pair of duets.
Taking to a rooftop with a view of the enormous stage, the two sang Eilish’s “Ocean Eyes” together before switching to “Video Games.” The first true breakthrough hits in each of these musicians’ careers are represented by these two tracks.
When their combined appearance was coming to an end, the two exchanged fangirl notes. “That’s the voice of our generation, the voice of your generation, and I’m so f—ing grateful she’s standing next to me right now singing my favorite song,” said Del Rey of her singing companion.
“Get the f— out of my face,” Eilish shot back, and they both started laughing.
“This is the reason I and the other half of you b—–s exist at all!” Eilish told the audience yet more. “Come on, you guys, Lana Del Rey!”
After a protracted segment in which Batiste and Del Rey reworked the song “Candy Necklace,” which they had co-written for Del Rey’s most recent album, 2023’s “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.”,” Eilish appeared on stage. At the 2024 Grammy Awards, the song was nominated for best pop duo/group performance. Batiste played the piano while kneeling atop the instrument for the most of the song, but near the conclusion, she stood down, and they started exchanging vocal lines on the spur of the moment.
The main act said, “There are times when you need someone else’s spirit to move with you, and that’s always going to be Jon Batiste.”
After Eilish’s presence, Del Rey read a passage from “Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me— but I Have It” with Antonoff, her recent co-producer and co-writer. Antonoff joined her, or at least a version of her: For that one song, he was unmistakably in the flesh, playing the piano, but she looked like an enormous hologram. The song is on her 2019 album “Normal F—ing Rockwell.”
A few live rarities were on her set list, such as her opening song, “Without You,” which fans claim she hasn’t performed since 2014, and her rendition of “Doin’ Time” by Sublime, which she hasn’t done since 2019 — perhaps a reference to the fact that a more recent version of Sublime is also scheduled to play Coachella.
Most people in attendance or watching on YouTube would agree that Del Rey didn’t need any of her guests to leave an impact. She had one of the most iconic entrances and departures in Coachella history, riding a motorbike through the audience, occasionally standing and/or blowing kisses as she went by, and through walled off parts that separated the throng. Her six dancers followed in motorcades that lasted minutes, each clinging on to a motorcyclist.
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