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Coachella 2022 Day 2 talking points: From a surprise Gorillaz appearance to The Simpsons theme, live!

Day two of the Californian music festival featured a number of other surprise guest appearances, including by Chinese megastar Jackson Wang, and Billie Eilish’s history-making headliner set

Leonie Cooper
Sunday 17 April 2022 16:40 BST
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Billie Eilish invites Damon Albarn on stage during Coachella performance
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As a windy Saturday in the desert comes to a close, here are the best things to happen on Day Two of Coachella on Saturday (16 April).

Billie Eilish and Damon Albarn perform ‘Feel Good Inc’

Damon Albarn wandering onstage to join Billie Eilish during her flashy headline set. The 20-year-old later introduces him as Gorillaz’s Damon Albarn who “changed her life” and is “literally a genius”, before they team up for a performance of “Feel Good Inc”. Not everyone in the crowd was aware who the Blur frontman was, however, with some thinking he was Eilish’s dad, and also Elton John.

Danny Elfman does world’s most famous television theme, live!

Sixty-Eight-year-old composer Danny Elfman is is by some margin the oldest artist performing at this year’s youth-focused Coachella. He gets the kids on side, however, when he plays undoubtedly the most famous piece of music he’s ever composed, the zany theme to The Simpsons, which he augments with a squalling guitar solo. Lisa would be proud of his virtuosity.

Coachella bids rowdy farewell to innovative boy band Brockhampton

After almost a decade of boundary shifting and rule breaking, the most innovative boy band of the 21st century have decided to call it a day. But not without one last surprise – the announcement of a brand new album, set for release later this year.

Disclosure joined by Khalid and brass band during high-energy rave set

Surrey-born brothers Howard and Guy Lawrence welcomed Khalid for the first ever live performance of their 2020 collaboration “Know Your Worth”. The duo then closed their set with party anthem “Tondo”, joined on stage by a brass band horn section.

Jackson Wang’s surprise appearance is all Twitter can talk about

Coming onstage unannounced during record label 88rising’s main stage takeover, Chinese superstar Jackson Wang makes the festival lose its collective mind. With his silver blue hair and red gloves on majestic display, the flashy Wang slinks his way through ten minutes of Michael Jackson inspired choreography with Las Vegas magician worthy flair, leaving a whole lot of fans more than happy for his arrival, but also wondering why he wasn’t on stage for an hour longer at least.

A mosh pit at last

We find our first legit mosh pit of the weekend at Turnstile’s Mojave stage set. Crowd surfing and an abundance of flailing limbs accompany the US hardcore act’s enticing way with melodic but still utterly ferocious punk.

Billie-mania sweeps the site

Billie Eilish’s eponymous perfume brand tweeted a photo of the singer next to a giant replica of the fragrance’s bottle, which is a metallic bust with half a head missing. There’s also a dedicated tent that sells only Eilish merch – hoodies are a hefty $90 though, so I can’t imagine you’ll be able to kit yourself out head to toe in full Eilish-wear.

Megan Thee Stallion twerks to victory

The mighty Megan Thee Stallion pulled out the best dance moves of the weekend so far, with a posterior-focussed set of moves which many fans online commented would probably put their hips out if they tried them at home.

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Emo rules

DJs from LA’s Emo Nite turned the festival into a throwback party, blasting out tunes by Paramore and Fall Out Boy, as well as a performance of “Hey There Delilah” from the Plain White Tees. What year is it again?

We survive the wind

We spot bins, bucket hats and all manner of nonsense being whisked across the site on the wind as a hefty breeze hits the festival grounds. Thankfully, it’s not so bad as to mean any shows are stopped or stages shut down, but it does prove to be somewhat annoying.

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