Coachella 2022 Day Two Best Moments: 88Rising’s Talent Show, Pabllo Vittar’s History-Making Set & More

Griselda Flores, Lyndsey Havens, Cydney Lee and Rania Aniftos
·9 min read

The second day of Coachella 2022 Weekend One is officially in the books. Saturday (April 16) at the desert marked a few firsts for many of the artists and history-making sets setting a new precedent for the festival.

For starters, Argentine trap sensation Nicki Nicole performed for the very first time in the United States, making her U.S. debut at the Sonora stage. The emotional 21-year-old artist said, “I never imagined that so many people would come watch my first show in the U.S.” Meanwhile, over at the Coachella main stage, 88Rising’s set made history as the first time a record label landed a slot on Coachella’s lineup. Plus, Brazilian star Pabllo Vittar became the first-ever drag queen to perform at Coachella.

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Saturday’s headliner Billie Eilish also became the youngest-ever act to headline the festival. Her loyal fans withstood the gusty winds that only seemed to grow stronger by the minute. The 20-year-old chart-topping artist closed day two singing back-to-back hits such as “Bad Guy,” “All the Good Girls Go to Hell” and “Happier Than Ever.” Eilish also had special guests Khalid, Gorillaz‘s Damon Albarn and De La Soul‘s Posdnuos who joined her onstage.

Check out Saturday’s 14 best moments below.

3:32 p.m. — Mexican singer-songwriter Ed Maverick hit the indoor Sonora stage introducing himself before a significant crowd. “Hi, my name is Eduardo. Hello to all the Eduardos.” He went on to perform a nostalgic set singing his heartbreak anthems, the ones he’d hoped to sing back in 2020 when he was first booked. “I still can’t believe I’m playing at Coachella,” he emotionally told the crowd, to whom he later apologized after his guitar “didn’t sound the way I wanted it to sound.” Toward the end of his 40-minute performance, he brought out Señor Kino to perform their collab “Vuelta En U.” “Arriba México, Arriba el rock.” He ended a fan-favorite, “Fuentes de Ortiz” and then left the stage while his fans asked for “otra, otra (one more).”

4:00 p.m. — Fresh off performing at Dreamville Festival two weeks ago, J.I.D brought the ‘Ville out west. The Atlanta rapper brought out EarthGang to perform “Meditate” and their verses on the Revenge of the Dreamers III hit “Down Bad.” “Open it up!,” they all yelled to the crowd to start a mosh pit. J.I.D showed off his rapid-fire cadence during his entire set, performing songs like “Off da Zoinkys,” “Workin Out” and “Skrawberries,” which he dedicated to the ladies in the crowd. “Women are cooler than dudes,” he said. At one point early on, fans began chanting for a particular song and the Dreamville rapper humorously replied “Y’all tryna prematurely ejaculate! We gotta do some foreplay first.” While J.I.D encouraged the mosh pits, the artist still urged everyone to stay safe as he was joined by rising artist Kenny Mason to perform their new song “Sitck” off of Dreamville’s recent D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape. The two then performed an encore of the song to close out J.I.D’s set.

4:40 p.m. — A teary-eyed Nicki Nicole, who made her U.S. debut at Coachella, thanked fans for supporting her. “I never imagined that so many people would come watch my first show in the U.S.,” she said holding back tears as she also grabbed a flag from her native Argentina a fan gifted her. Toward the end, she also invited a little girl from the crowd to join her onstage to sing “Wapo Traketero.” Although the little girl was in total shock and just stood frozen, it was a sweet moment between Nicole and her littler fan.

5:30 p.m. — Despite performing “Peaches” by himself, Giveon played a soothing show with live instruments for his Saturday night set on the main stage. The Long Beach singer performed songs mostly from his 2021 album When It’s All Said and Done… Take Time, except for “Peaches” and a semi-rock version of his verse on Drake’s “Chicago Freestyle.” Giveon certainly dressed the part sporting a blue Chanel button-up shirt with a white collar and cuffs and several chains. He also held a glass of what looked like to be white wine for part of his performance before dedicating “World We Created” to a couple in the crowd he interacted with. “How long have you been together? Do you have a song? This next song I’m about to play, it’s your song, it’s only yours, ok?,” the R&B singer told them. Giveon concluded with an elongated version of “Heartbreak Anniversary.”

6:12 p.m. — Cuco’s trippy, rock leaning set felt tailor-made for the desert, a fact proven by his performance of “Under the Sun,” a swaggering, horn-heavy song that perfectly soundtracked Coachella’s golden hour.

7:04 p.m. — 88Rising’s set — which operated like a high-quality, ultra-impressive talent show — made history as the first time a record label landed a slot on Coachella’s lineup. The 80-minute performance fittingly felt like a celebration; From the long-awaited return of K-pop act 2NE1 to J-pop artist Hilary Utada’s first festival set, there was something worth applauding at every turn. But one of the set’s stand out moments came from label act NIKI, who was backed by a 15-piece orchestra as she delivered her song “Split,” which she introduced by saying: “This next song is for my family and my country.” As for how the label will remember such a feat? It thought ahead — 88Rising released a new compilation album titled Head In The Clouds Forever.

7:26 p.m. — French record producer Tchami unexpectedly brought out Gunna during his Saturday night set at the Sahara Stage. The two performed their song “Praise” then Gunna rapped “Pushin P” for the second time after joining Lil Baby for “Drip Too Hard” on Friday (April 15) night.

8:10 p.m. — Fans were already feeling the energy of Disclosure’s set, as the DJ duo played a mix of fan favorite beats including “Latch,” “Tondo” and “When a Fire Starts to Burn.” To bring the hype up yet another notch, Khalid appeared onstage in a lime green suit to perform the group’s 2019 collaboration, “Talk.”

8:30 p.m. — Pabllo Vittar soaked in all the love her fans had to offer. After all, she was making history tonight. “My name is Pabllo and I’m a drag queen from Brazil – the first drag queen to perform at Coachella,” she said. Her high-energy and fierce set at the Gobi stage lured in fans who not once stopped dancing to her trilingual techno and pop anthems. Toward the end of her set, she brought out Rina Sawayama to perform their new single “Follow Me.” As she said goodbye, Pabllo couldn’t help but cry. “Muito Obrigada. Thank you, Coachella.”

8:35 p.m. — Flume had to restart his set after a brief mess up, but the hiccup didn’t seem to phase him. The DJ/producer seamlessly delivered “You & Me” before kicking off a spree of guests starting with Vince Staples for “Smoke & Retribution.” Other surprises drop-ins came courtesy of MAY-A and Oklou, which were sprinkled throughout the set that also leaned heavy on new music — and rightfully featured Flume’s remix of SOPHIE track “Is It Cold in the Water?”

10:09 p.m. — Megan Thee Stallion delivered a set packed with old mixtape hits and more recent chart-toppers like “WAP” and “Savage” — and even debuted a new song, which she said was personal to her and dedicated to “whom the f— it may concern…” Fittingly, the song wrapped with Meg repeating the phrase, “Yous a b—-.” But more so than any one moment from the set, Megan doubled down on what Anitta — with her own sex-positive performance — proved to be true on day one. Being yourself sure pays off. As Meg said best, “I want to take a second to say: Real hot girl s—.”

10:35 p.m. — Stromae opens his much-anticipated return to the Coachella stage with a Pixar-esque animation, in which a cartoon version of the singer flies into Indio from Mars. He then performed a dynamic set, complete with old and new hits, a robot dog delivering a sweater to Stromae on stage and impressive background animations. A highlight of the set was “Fils de Joie,” in which the Belgian star stood at a podium, giving a press conference to the audience about a sex worker who has passed away. The song gives thoughts on the departed from various people in her life, highlighting how each character has their “eyes closed” to the stigma women in the sex working field face.

10:50 p.m. — Marking his first performance since his sex tape involving him two other men leaked back in February, Isaiah Rashad began his set with a video montage addressing the elephant in the room. “The purpose of doing that was to embarrass him. However, that backfired,” one of the voices said. “When his video leaked, his dreams and everything went up.” The Chattanooga rapper kicked off his Saturday night Sahara Stage set with Kal Banx performing “RIP Young.” He then brought out Doechii for “Wat U Sed” and her new song “Crazy.” “I see all the messages and all the positivity. Y’all kept me alive these last couple months,” he said. SiR also made an appearance for “Rope // rosegold.” Rashad closed his set with “Headshots.”

12:37 p.m. — Toward the end of Billie Eilish’s day two headlining set, the superstar treated fans to a guest performance from Damon Albarn — consider it her own “When Harry Met Shania” moment (from Styles’ day one headlining set). Albarn sauntered on stage to lend vocals to “Getting Older,” off Eilish’s second album Happier Than Ever, and stuck around for “Feel Good Inc.,” for which De La Soul’s Posdnuos also joined and injected the last bit of Eilish’s set with high energy. “This is the craziest shit I’ve ever experienced,” said Eilish. “This man changed my life in a lot of ways, and changed my view of what music and art and creation could be.”

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