The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, better known simply as Coachella, has become a familiar annual event even for K-pop fans. The draw comes not just from the K-pop artists who perform there and the sheer high profile of the event, but also the unrivaled accessibility for audiences around the world, given the festival’s streamed on YouTube. But it’s no small feat spending a three-day weekend keeping up with a flurry of sets across four or five streams simultaneously, so we’ve narrowed the lineup of roughly 150 acts down to six of the most anticipated shows. Coachella is always a sight to behold, practically overflowing with the biggest names in music, but even then, some of the artists who play the festival are absolutely unmissable.

Lady Gaga
The phrase “reheating nachos” has picked up steam online lately (Korean has its own equivalent: jaetang). Whether it’s someone else’s or your own, the term means rehashing existing ideas. Lady Gaga’s latest album, “MAYHEM,” marks a return to the dance-dominant style of her early work, making her a target of nacho comments. The singer herself is aware of this and even addressed it in a recent interview, saying, “My nachos are mine, and I invented them.” Gaga has proven herself to be incredibly versatile over the past decade. Her first duet work with Tony Bennett was back in 2014, it’s already been nine years since she released her sonically expansive album “Joanne,” she played the lead in the 2018 movie “A Star Is Born,“ and let’s not forget her song on the “Top Gun: Maverick” soundtrack. Today, Gaga has all the edge of her early years and still keeps herself accessible to audiences of all generations. “Die With a Smile” made the commercial power of her combination of appeals perfectly clear. Predictions that she might settle into adult contemporary territory, as suggested by her Las Vegas residency, though, have been proven wrong. Just look at “MAYHEM.” She can turn her “monster” side on and put on an exceptionally artistic show whenever she feels like it, rivaling Beyoncé or Taylor Swift in their respective arenas. Gaga will be making her first appearance at Coachella since headlining the fest in 2017, and the timing for her return couldn’t be better. Get ready to savor the original nachos.

ENHYPEN
ENHYPEN is the only K-pop boy band performing at Coachella this year. They’re the third boy group following Epik High’s two shows in 2016 and 2022 and ATEEZ’s in 2024. ENHYPEN’s already got a résumé when it comes to playing big international festivals, too, having played to different audiences at ROCK IN JAPAN last year and Summer Sonic the year before that. Plus, ENHYPEN’s work in the US in 2024 already has people excited over their upcoming performance at the ever influential Coachella. Their album “ROMANCE: UNTOLD” debuted at No. 2 on the “Billboard” 200 and No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart in July and has been on the latter ever since, now on its 36th week and currently at No. 40 as of the March 29 chart. On the live stage front, they were No. 50 on the “Billboard” Top Tours chart last year, an annual roundup of top-grossing tours. Out of the four K-pop acts in the Top 100, ENHYPEN was No. 2. Their proven tour repertoire and teamwork will prove invaluable in leaving a mark on Coachella audiences unfamiliar with K-pop, including those watching by livestream. For that reason, it’s encouraging to hear that, in a recent interview, NI-KI described Coachella as “a valuable opportunity to perform our music for people who don’t know us.” Coachella promises to be an entertaining stopgap between their ongoing world tour and the new music that fans can expect from them later this year.

LISA
BLACKPINK first performed at Coachella in 2019 and made history in 2023 when they became the first K-pop artists to headline. In the time between those two performances, their albums “THE ALBUM” and “BORN PINK” reached No. 2 and No. 1 on the “Billboard” 200, respectively. The group also achieved five Top 40 hits on the Hot 100, breaking the record for the highest position on the chart by a K-pop girl group along the way. Their “BORN PINK” world tour, which wrapped in autumn 2023, attracted 1.8 million attendees, becoming the most successful tour ever held by any girl group. As the same year came to a close, we started to learn about the individual members’ plans to put out music on a solo basis. LISA was the first to put hers out into the world when she dropped “Rockstar” in June last year, followed by her collaboration with ROSALÍA on “New Woman” in August. We can now see “New Woman” was signaling the kind of impressive collabs we would be seeing from the group members as they moved forward with her solo work. The BLACKPINK member hit new highs when she released her debut album, “Alter Ego,” in February this year and appeared in season three of the hit HBO series “The White Lotus.” Coachella will be an excellent opportunity to witness her perform songs from her album live. Excitement is running particularly high to see her live after she performed “FXCK UP THE WORLD (FUTW)” for YouTube Music Nights.

JENNIE
It’s not uncommon for members of a group to pursue solo careers as well once the group’s successful. But not every group is BLACKPINK. From ROSÉ’s album “rosie” in December to JENNIE’s album “Ruby” in March, all four of the girls put out their own solo work within the span of just three months. And the buzz surrounding each never drowned out the others, each doing progressively better and building on the momentum of the others. Each thrived independently while amplifying the group—a rare achievement. JENNIE appears to have been serious about performing her entire album live because she held a showcase called “The Ruby Experience” in the US, Korea, and France alongside the release of her album where she performed all 15 tracks, most of them for the first time. Additionally, she was the inaugural artist for the new “Billboard” series “ICONIC STAGE” with performances of “like JENNIE” and “Handlebars,” which could also be seen as a trial run for Coachella. But considering BLACKPINK has a world tour planned for later in the year, it’s unlikely there’ll be many more opportunities to see any of them perform their albums in their entirety again. And given just how good “Ruby” is, JENNIE’s Coachella performance will be that much more special, promising to be the single performance lined up for Sunday you absolutely won’t want to miss.

Travis Scott
Travis Scott returns to the desert for the first time in eight years after last playing Coachella in 2017. He was slated to headline in 2020, but the entire event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although Scott was meant to be onstage once the festival resumed in 2022, his appearance was canceled after what happened at Astroworld Festival in late 2021—a tragedy that has caused concerns about the artist headlining major festivals to persist. Organizers, however, have expressed confidence in the design of their event and in their crowd control abilities. Moreover, excitement for Scott remains sky-high. His name doesn’t appear under a specific date on the lineup poster, but he’s expected to be the Saturday closer. Instead, the bottom of the poster features the phrase “Travis Scott Designs the Desert,” suggesting a separate immersive exhibition space curated by the artist.  At the same time, Scott has announced that he’ll be entering a new musical era at the festival. While he’s kept his momentum since 2023’s “UTOPIA” going with collaborations and other singles, details of his forthcoming album have only just begun to emerge. He’s almost certain to debut some new tracks at Coachella. The mystery surrounding his immersive show, and whatever the connection might be to his new releases, will undoubtedly generate a lot of buzz. If you’re curious to see how his performances have redefined the landscape of hip hop concerts, be sure and check him out as he debuts his new vision.

Charli XCX
The brat is headed to Coachella. Charli XCX last graced the Coachella stage in 2023, but she’s at a whole new level these days. Her 2024 album “BRAT” dominated public discourse, becoming one of the most influential cultural touchpoints of the year. With a 95 on Metacritic, it was the highest-rated album of 2024, named Album of the Year by numerous outlets, and won three out of its nine Grammy nominations. Considering Charli’s famously high-energy performances, both on tour alongside Troye Sivan and singing solo, just the thought of her taking to Coachella’s outdoor stage is thrilling. What’s particularly exciting is the potential guest lineup—Sivan and anyone else involved in the “BRAT” remixes all have the potential to make surprise appearances. A. G. Cook, Charli’s longtime collaborator and founder of the label PC Music, is also on this year’s Coachella roster, and so is hyperpop icon Arca. And let’s not forget LISA, who once expressed interest in collaborating with Charli. Charli XCX has a knack for turning even her birthday parties into viral celebrity events. For her, Coachella may be what her extended brat summer has all been leading up to, or perhaps its triumphant final note. It’s arguably going to be the hottest show at the festival outside of the headliners.