Watch Ariana Grande Cover Frank Ocean, Bring Out *NSYNC and Nicki Minaj at Coachella 2019
Ariana Grande pulled out a string of surprises for her headline set at Coachella’s third night in Indio, California. As teased last week, she brought out *NSYNC (without Justin Timberlake) for “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored”—on which they are sampled—and then sang with the group for a rendition of “Tearin’ Up My Heart.”
Later, she introduced Nicki Minaj for an ill-fated appearance: Apparent monitor issues led the pair to lose time and trip over each other’s lines, with Grande yelling “We can’t hear anything!” twice while trying to keep momentum. Then, as a glowing orb filled the stage during an interlude, a recording played of what appeared to be Grande covering Frank Ocean’s Blonde song “Close to You,” which has also aired on her current tour. (Ocean’s song also interpolates elements of a Stevie Wonder performance, as well as Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s original). Later in the set, Diddy and Mase came out to join Grande for “Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems,” their classic Notorious B.I.G. collab. Watch clips below.
Ariana Grande shared thank u, next earlier this year. Since then, she’s snagged the award for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 61st Grammys for her 2018 release Sweetener, and dropped a joint track with Victoria Monét called “Monopoly.” She is now on her “Sweetener World Tour.”
Find the complete line up for Coachella here; next week’s festival will live stream as well. Follow along with our full coverage of Coachella 2019.
This article was originally published on April 15 at 12:59 a.m. Eastern. It was last updated at 6:50 a.m. Eastern
