6 days Ago By Rolling Stone
So much of what makes Coachella exciting is the element of surprise, and the festival wouldn’t be what it is if performers didn’t pack their sets with unexpected guests for fans who high-tailed to the desert this weekend. The big reveals started on Day One: Three 6 Mafia shocked the crowd with a rolodex of artists, including Project Pat, Travis Barker, Machine Gun Kelly, and Wiz Khalifa. Punk legends The Go-Gos extended a stage invite to Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong (who headlined with his band on Saturday night), and Tyla delighted fans by having Becky G alongside her as she sang their collaboration “On My Body.
” Benson Boone, meanwhile, teamed up with Queen’s Brian May , who played guitar during renditions of “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Beautiful Things” that showed off the rising hitmaker’s astonishing vocal range. That was just the first day. Across three days, even more stars came out to amp up the crowd and add something special to every set.
On the second night, things got even more unpredictable — and even political at certain moments. Charli XCX celebrated her brat era with Lorde and Billie Eilish, and Clairo kicked off her show by having Bernie Sanders arrive onstage to rebuke the Trump administration. And on the third day, Addison Rae hoped onstage while performing with Arca to announce that her debut album will drop on June 6th, while Megan Thee Stallion packed her set with girl power by bringing on Queen Latifah, Victoria Monét, and Ciara.
Here’s everyone who came out during both weekends of the festival. Benson Boone has been pretty vocal about his love of Queen, so it seemed like a full circle moment when he had Brian May play guitar during his rendition of “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Beautiful Things” at Coachella. Tyla’s sunny Coachella set included a surprise cameo from Becky G, who gleefully sang “On My Body” with the South African star.
Three 6 Mafia had tons of guests during their Friday performance, but few people expected Machine Gun Kelly to jump out and rap “Hit a Muthaf***a / Weak Azz B***h.” Machine Gun Kelly and Travis Barker are tight friends, so it made sense that he joined in on thee fun and played drums with Three 6 Mafia. Maren Morris stopped by Zedd set at the Outdoor Theater Sunday to perform their 2018 smash, “The Middle.
” On Instagram after, Morris thanked Zedd for “bringing me out for the most insane crowd and for always being a gem of a human being.” Wiz Khalifa was another surprise during Three 6 Mafia’s star-studded set, wowing the crowd next to frequent collaborator Juicy J. When Lorde popped out to perform her “Girl, So Confusing” verse, it felt like the perfect full-circle moment for what was seemingly the end of Charli XCX’s Brat season.
Like Charli said, Lorde summer 2025! Mustard’s non-stop parade of guests featured an appearance from rapper Roddy Rich, which got Coachella-goers screaming. We probably could’ve guessed this surprise appearance, but it was still thrilling to watch Billie Eilish bring her magnetic energy — and baggiest fit — to the Coachella stage for her Brat collab “Guess.” Kali Uchis came out in a stunning red dress to twin with new bestie Jennie and they sang their collaboration “Damn Right.
” In a truly surprising turn of events, Senator Bernie Sanders made a plea to the crowd of young Clairo fans, urging them to stand up and fight against the growing injustices in the U.S. “The future of what happens to America is dependent upon your generation,” Sanders said.
Even Billie Joe Armstrong couldn’t believe he was performing with his fellow California icons. “Holy shit, I’m playing with The Go-Gos” the Green Day singer said before singing along to the 1984 hit “Head Over Heels.” At one point during Megan Thee Stallion’s show-stopping Coachella spectacle, her dancers stood in formation and jumped away one by one to reveal Queen Latifah, who performed “Plan B” and “Unity.
” After Queen Latifah came out, Megan brought out Victoria Monét, who sang “Spin” and “On My Mama.” Ciara joined Megan and her dancers with some upbeat choreography, mixing “Roc Steady” and “Goodies.” Megan seemed overcome with emotion as they hugged and Ciara shouted, “I love you, Meg, and I’m so proud of you!” Addison Rae showed up to sing the live debut of her single “Aquamarine” (which had been remixed by Arca and retitled “Arcamarine.
”) At the end, Rae flashed a pair of pink panties that read “June 6th,” revealing to the audience that her debut album would be dropping that day. Partway through Arca’s set, Dominican singer Tokischa made a surprise appearance to trade vocals “Chama” with the pioneering producer/artist. They also danced together for the audience.
The Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Gustavo Dudamel brought some classical flair to the desert during their Coachella debut. LL Cool J helped the orchestra close out their cameo-packed set, performing a medley that included “Rock the Bells” and “Mama Said Knock You Out,” before gifting Dudamel (in his last season with the L.A.
Phil) a matching yellow bucket hat. Becky G performed double duty at this year’s festival: After coming out with Tyla on Friday, she joined the L.A.
Philharmonic for an orchestral version of “Shower.” Along with guesting during Zedd’s set, country star Maren Morris took the stage with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor to perform a sweeping orchestral rendition of her debut single, “My Church.” The Argentine duo had already charmed Coachella crowds with their own performance on Friday night, but they made even more fans when they sang jazzed-up arrangments of their popular tracks alongside Gustavo Dudamel and the L.
A. Philharmonic. Icelandic musician Laufey has already performed with the L.
A. Phil twice, so a reunion at Coachella made plenty of sense. During her cameo, Laufey sang her 2023 hit “From the Start” and performed her new single, “Silver Lining,” live for the first time.
During his set on the Main Stage, Shaboozey brought out Noah Cyrus for a special live duet of their song “My Fault, which appears on his 2024 album Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going . Tyga took to the Coachella stage for a rendition of“Chosen” alongside Blxst and Ty Dolla $ign. Wiz Khalifa continued his busy night alongside Ty Dolla $ign, performing their 2014 single “Or Nah.
” Canadian quartet The Beaches made their Coachella debut this weekend and brought out Australian star G Flip, who linked forced with the band for the raucous new single “Last Girls at the Party,” which G Flip co-wrote and produced. Peso Pluma brought out Junior H when he played Coachella in the past, so this time, Junior returned the favor. People raced to get closer to the stage to watch the gravelly voiced singer and Junior play “Luna,” from Peso’s debut album Génesis .
There was a musica mexicana lovefest during Junior H’s set: He brought out Tito Double P, who joined him and Junior’s musicians to perform the love song “5-7.” Shortly into his set, Mustard had the crowd welcome 2 Chainz. The Georgia rapper stormed the stage and performed the 2012 hit “I’m Different.
” Mustard kept the stars coming, inviting Tyga onstage at one point. Tyga performed “Rack City,” the 2011 hit that made it onto the top 10 on the Billboard 100..
