Publish Malone closed out the primary weekend of this 12 months’s Coachella competition on Sunday night time with a 90-minute efficiency wherein he remade a few of his smash pop-rap hits as down-home nation jams.
Sauntering onstage holding a pink plastic cup and a cigarette, the 29-year-old singer — who went Nashville in 2024 with the chart-topping “F-1 Trillion” after years of dominating pop and hip-hop radio — opened his set with twangy renditions of “Texas Tea,” “Wow” and “Better Now” that felt like they may’ve been carried out at Coachella’s nation cousin, Stagecoach (the place in truth Malone launched his nation section final 12 months).
“I apologize for being pitchy,” he mentioned later within the present. “Auto-Tune is a hell of a drug.”
Wearing tight denims and a weathered ball cap, Malone put throughout his regular self-effacing vibe as he ran by oldies like “Go Flex,” “Goodbyes,” “Lemon Tree” and “Psycho,” the final of which had him yowling on his knees. He additionally did solo variations of a number of the nation songs from “F-1 Trillion,” together with “I Had Some Help” (which options Morgan Wallen on report), “Losers” (which options Jelly Roll on report) and “M-E-X-I-C-O” (which options Billy Strings on report).
Regardless of his many mates in Nashville, Malone didn’t convey out any shock company on Friday — a call in holding this 12 months along with his fellow headliners Girl Gaga, who introduced solely her producer Gesaffelstein, and Inexperienced Day, whose set featured no company.
Earlier than leaping into the gang to shake followers’ arms as he completed his set with “Sunflower,” Malone gave a little bit motivational speech to introduce his music “Congratulations,” telling the viewers that he remembered when a “lot of motherf—” have been calling him a one-hit surprise.
However simply take a look at him now, he appeared to be arguing: a rapper who’d made himself into a rustic star at pop’s most necessary music competition.
