Coachella 2025 Day 1: Lady Gaga, Lisa, and Benson Boone Take the Stage

ge red staircase flanked by dancers in silver bodysuits, setting a tone of grandeur for what was to come. From there, it was hit after hit — each accompanied by its own unique set design and often breathtaking choreography. Bells and whistles abounded, of course: a giant mechanical spider, a duet with Macklemore on “The Queen of New York,” a full choir joining her for “Aura” — but it was Gaga’s vocal performance, the best of her storied career, that truly stole the show.

The production, like all Gaga endeavors, was meticulously planned, but Jeremy Frazier, the creative director of Coachella (and arguably the most important person in the artist’s life right now), still seemed surprised at how Gaga hit it out of the park. “When we started planning the set six months ago,” he said backstage after the show, “we knew we wanted to go big, but we had no idea how all-encompassing it would feel in the moment. Even this morning, during soundcheck, I don’t think any of us truly understood what was about to happen.”

Over the span of 90 minutes, Gaga laid claim to every inch of the Coachella Stage, from the pit to the soundboard and back again, but managed to make even the furthest seats feel intimate — a testament to her ability to connect with the crowd even when she’s surrounded by 30 dancers and four back-up singers.

But the biggest surprise of the day wasn’t Gaga, or even the modern-day poets — including a super-rare performance of the Weeknd’s entire House of Balloons mixtape — that led off the weekend on smaller stages. It wasn’t the way teams of firefighters roamed the grounds spraying revelers with hoses to keep them cool in what turned out to be the hottest Coachella on record, either. No, the biggest surprise came from a kid — Benson Boone, a 19-year-old pop star from TikTok — whose near-perfect re-creation of Freddie Mercury’s entire Live Aid set has to be seen (on YouTube, likely; copyright issues will prevent it from being officially uploaded) to be believed.

Boone, on his very first tour, was gifted — no one would deny that — but it was his sheer audacity that brought the crowd to their feet. Picture it: a skinny white kid in a weirdly-dressy tank top storming the Outdoor Theatre stage amidst a bill of EDM talent, armed with nothing but a black microphone stand and a four-piece backing band, and totally blowing the 80,000-strong crowd away. From the opening notes of “Bohemian Rhapsody” through the closing strains of “We Will Rock You,” Boone channeled Mercury’s theatricality, his flair, even his signature “AYYYY-O!” audience-echo moment in a way that was both reverential and totally fresh.

Even the skeptics, of which there were many, seemed amazed — by the time Boone wrapped up his 50-minute set with a rapturous “Radio Ga-Ga,” it was impossible to think he wasn’t worthy of his new title: A Superstar. As he walked offstage, wiping sweat off his brow and waving shyly to the sea of new fans who’d instantly anointed him as their new favorite festival performer, it was clear that the heir to Mercury’s throne had arrived.

Ultimately, Boone’s gift wasn’t the most unique thing about the day: that title belongs to Lisa, the 25-year-old Korean pop star who’d just wrapped her own set on the Mojave stage. As she strutted around the grounds in a Balmain ensemble that had the paparazzi in a frenzy, it was hard not to be struck by her effortless cool. Coachella’s unofficial slogan — be yourself, even when that self is dressed in head-to-toe designer labels and flanked by bodyguards — has rarely been so successfully embodied as it was in that moment.

But it wasn’t just the shine of Lisa’s sunglasses, or the way the sun hit her perfectly tousled hair; it was the way she worked the crowd with just a crooked smile and a nod, the way she slipped from English to Korean without missing a beat, the way she strolled back to her trailer through the throngs of rapt fans, laughing and joking but never stopping moving. She was the queen of the desert that day, without question, but she was also proof that sometimes, all it takes is sheer presence to rule.