Everything was going smoothly until a surprise guest appeared on the stage with an acoustic guitar in his hand.
Bad Bunny’s Coachella 2023 Friday night show lived up to its promise of intense spectacle. The Puerto Rican superstar is the first solo Latin artist to headline a music festival, and he shattered that barrier with powerful charisma and an honest tribute to the music that made him.
During the Friday night set, the artist appeared in a coat of many colorful tiles backed with elaborate theatrical designs – the first appeared like a gas station in the desert with the artist on a suspended stage addressing the huge crowd from his altar.
The group began with his arresting 2022 single “Tití Me Preguntó” and featured international favorites like “I Like It” (without Cardi B and J Balvin) and “Si Veo a Tu Mamá,” remixes of the timeless song. “The Girl” from Ipanema “for a new generation.
Speaking between predominantly Spanish songs—early on, he asked the audience what language they preferred and the results were clear—Bad Bunny confidently explained to thousands how, “Nunca antes hubo uno como yo,” or: “Never before has there been someone like me.”
Bad Buddy used his lights on the main stage at Coachella to pay homage to the music history that inspired him, using short documentary interludes that appear on screen during the show’s transitions.
From homages to the origin of drums and percussion from the Congo and Nigeria to the history of salsa and reggaeton (along with a nod to the illustrious Tito Puente), his ensemble paid homage to the many artists and musical styles that melded to headline his opening act for the festival.
The only setback eventually came when he decided to share the stage with a former Coachella star.
Post Malone performs at the Sahara Tent at the 2022 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 16, 2022 in Indio, California.
Matt Winkelmayer/Getty Images for CoachellaAs Bad Bunny made his way through the crowd, a mysterious figure appeared at the side of the stage. It wasn’t until Bad Bunny’s return to the spotlight that cameras revealed the surprise guest: Post Malone.
Shockwaves of excitement (and ambivalence) reverberated across the back of the polo field, and the two artists dropped the beat for a somber duet, with Post Malone strumming guitar.
They start playing Bad Bunny’s “La Canción” and within the first minute, Post Malone’s guitar starts to sound choppy and choppy. At first, it seemed like the tattooed face artist was purposely making a rich, rhythmic change to the song, but within a few seconds, it became apparent that the microphone amplifying his guitar had failed.
Awkwardly, the two artists scrambled to fix the audio issues. Bad Bunny even tried holding a separate microphone on the guitar while singing with another, but his Plan B quickly fell through. The crowd helped out the version of “Yonaguni” from the song “Yonaguni,” but the acting quickly began to lose steam.
Post Malone — who famously drew questionable eyeballs from locals when visiting Indio, the city hosting the festival — quickly walked off the stage and left Bad Bunny to finish his set without further technical difficulties.
Fireworks shot into the sky as Bad Bunny recovered from the cowshed to close out the first night of Coachella 2023.