Lanachella: Del Rey Brings Out Billie Eilish, Jack Antonoff, Jon Batiste, Police Escorts, and Her Own Hologram for Iconic Coachella 2024 Set

"Lanachella" was in full effect Friday, as "exactly 10 years ago to the day" that Lana Del Rey first performed at Coachella, the queen of the sad girls triumphantly returned to the festival — making a grand entrance via a police-escorted motorcade processional across the Indio Polo Field, shown in aerial shots on the main stage's video screens — to claim her (flower) crown.

When the Coachella 2024 lineup was announced back in January, many pundits wondered if Del Rey could pull off a headlining slot on the fest's first night; the indie chanteuse herself seemed well aware of this skepticism, even booking her own desert highway billboard that poked fun at her infamous, potentially career-killing 2012 Saturday Night Live performance. Del Rey's Coachella set was admittedly imperfect — it was plagued throughout with sound issues that slowed the momentum and muddled her already hushed vocals deep in the mix, and her languid, summertime-sadness energy wasn't quite at the level of past historic headlining spectacles ranging from Daft Punk to Prince to Beyoncé.

But Del Rey's 20-song, roaring-2020s revue did feature a troupe of champagne-bottle-popping ballerinas and Cirque-style pole-dancers; a swanky Jazz Age number featuring Grammy darling Jon Batiste, with Del Rey reclining in Fabulous Baker Boys mode across a gold piano, on "Candy Necklace"; and a spooky "Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me to Have" performance starring a Lana-gram (a Lana Del Rey hologram, that is, hauntingly crooning, "Hello, it's the most famous woman you know on the iPad, calling from beyond the grave") and longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff.

And most thrillingly, there was a surprise appearance by Del Rey's longtime admirer and first-time collaborator, Billie Eilish.

Del Rey and Eilish gushingly expressed their adulation for each other last year in Interview magazine — Billie told Lana, "You changed the way the music industry hears and sees music, and you changed the way people sing. ... You will never understand how much of an impact that you have had on me in my life," while a mutually "obsessed" Lana called Billie "prodigious" and "magical." And that lovefest continued April 12 on the gilded Coachella stage, where the two indie-pop icons cozied up on a decaying Gatsby-mansion balcony for dreamy duets of their viral breakthrough singles, "Video Games" and "Ocean Eyes."

Afterwards, an adorably awestruck and overwhelmed Eilish jokingly gasped to her idol, "Get the f--- out of my face!" and declared Del Rey "the reason for half you bitches' existence, including mine," to which Del Rey sweetly responded, "Yep, that's the voice of your generation, the voice of our generation. I'm so f---ing grateful she's standing next to me right now!"

Many past Coachellas have been testosterone-soaked affairs; in 2016, the Los Angeles Times even published a justifiably irate op-ed titled "Coachella: Plenty of bros, but where are the female headliners?" But Friday's feminine-energized kickoff practically felt like a Lilith Fair revival. Women dominated not only onstage — among the standout performers were Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Chlöe, Tinashe, Suki Waterhouse, Brittany Howard, and two other surprise guests, Shakira and Becky G — but also in the safe-space crowds, with seemingly every front row filled with ribbon-festooned, face-painted, and occasionally flower-crowned fangirls joyously screaming and sobbing along to every lyric.

The 2024 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival continues Saturday with "Just a Girl" trailblazer Gwen Stefani reuniting with No Doubt for the first time since 2015, along with anticipated sets by Ice Spice, Grimes, and British buzz band the Last Dinner Party. See Lana Del Rey's full Coachella setlist below:

Without You

West Coast

Doin' Time

Summertime Sadness

Cherry

Pretty When You Cry

Ride

Born to Die

Bartender

Chemtrails Over the Country Club

The Grants

Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd

Norman F---ing Rockwell

Arcadia

Candy Necklace (with Jon Batiste)

Ocean Eyes (with Billie Eilish)

Video Games (with Billie Eilish)

Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me to Have — But I Have It (with Jack Antonoff)

A&W

Young and Beautiful

Tags

Coachella, Lana Del Rey, Billie Eilish