MUSIC
Frank Ocean’s ankle injury reportedly led to Coachella changes
Sources are saying that Frank Ocean suffered from an ankle injury that resulted in changes to his Coachella stage on Sunday.
After Frank Ocean’s lackluster Coachella performance as the closing show for weekend one of the festival on Sunday, reports are coming out explaining that the singer’s performance, which many fans found disappointing, was hampered by an ankle injury.
The injury resulted in last-minute changes, which were made in the moments leading up to his scheduled performance time, and included a canceled ice rink performance.
How did Frank Ocean injure his ankle?
Sources have told both TMZ and Rolling Stone that Ocean was dealing with an ankle injury during his show. It’s unclear if the injury occurred during a bike accident, or during rehearsals for the show in the days leading up to the event.
The supposed ankle injury explains Ocean’s fashion choices at the show, where the singer opted for comfortable slippers, and spent most of the set sitting down at either his piano or on the stage.
Although it does not explain why, during DJ Crystal Mess’s 10-minute DJ set, Ocean didn’t sing along, and was instead dancing.
Scrapped ice skating performance
The injury also reportedly resulted in last-minute changes to the stage itself. An elevated ice rink, made to accommodate 100 hockey players, was meant to be part of the show but ended up being quickly melted down and removed. This is supposedly what led to the one-hour delayed start time.
The players were students from the Loyola Marymount University hockey team, according to Rolling Stone, and one of them even allegedly shared a behind-the-scenes look at Ocean’s original Coachella stage on his Instagram stories with the caption “The Boys x Frank.”
TMZ’s sources say that Ocean’s team had reached out to a number of hockey teams in the L.A. area in March. And at the auditions, the team saw Ocean in the audience.
When the players arrived on Sunday, they were told their performance had been scrapped, and instead, they would be joining Ocean on stage as background dancers, and given a complete Prada wardrobe for their efforts.
A potential reason why the live-stream was canceled
With the original idea for the show done away with, this may have led to the decision to not air the severely reduced show.
Now, some fans are hoping that Ocean’s weekend two performance may find another solution to the show that will accommodate Ocean’s injury.