Coachella 2027 Lineup: Dua Lipa, SZA and Madonna Headline a Sparse Rap Field

Coachella has announced its 2027 lineup, and Dua Lipa, SZA and Tame Impala's Kevin Parker will headline the festival in Indio, California, next April. The poster, released this week, arrived with a headline tier that critics say reads like a slate built for a year earlier. Dua Lipa, SZA and Kevin Parker have not released full projects within the last 12 months, nor have they had especially visible years, as Pitchfork's Walden Green noted in the outlet's lineup breakdown.

Of the three, Dua Lipa's inclusion looks like the clearest signpost of an imminent album. Green wrote that he expects the singer to have a new record announced, and possibly released, by the time April arrives. SZA, meanwhile, stands as one of the few artists who could plausibly draw Kendrick Lamar to the desert — Green reports the festival has been chasing Lamar to headline for several years running. For Parker, Green offered a sharper wish: he better hope Coachella lets him bring Ninajirachi along.

What happened to the rap bookings?

Drake was an early prediction to headline, and, depending on which tabloid one subscribes to, nearly a lock. Even a Drake appearance, though, would not offset the thinness of the hip-hop tier. Alex Suskind counted the rap acts on the 2027 poster: Don Toliver, Milo J, Drain Gang, Nettspend, Xaviersobased, Esdeekid, Freddie Gibbs, Genesis Owusu, Mike D, Murda Beatz and Fetty Wap — and, as he put it, that is it. That is roughly a dozen rap acts on a slate of more than 150 artists. Coachella's yearslong drift away from hip-hop has been well documented, but Suskind called the 2027 ratio "pretty bleak" for one of the world's most high-profile festivals.

Electronic acts flood the undercard

Electronic music dominates the 2027 lineup so thoroughly that DJs now populate even the undercard, traditionally the space for alternative picks that record-store employees would endorse. Nina Corcoran still found standouts beneath the beats:

• DIY punk: Twisted Teens, Lambrini Girls, First Day Back
• Bedroom glitch-pop: Bassvictim, Tiffany Day, Ear
• Indie rock: This Is Lorelei, Mary in the Junkyard
• Whispery ambience: Nirosta Steel, Chanel Beads, Love Spells

Further names hide in the fine print, including After, Genesis Owusu and the Womack Sisters.

The main dance ticket follows Coachella's established formula. Kiana Mickles and Jazz Monroe described the booking strategy as reformulating "crowd-pleasing" as a form of warcraft, with EDM, house and techno names — Martin Garrix, Solomun, Tiësto, Chase & Status and Boris Brejcha — supplying what they called "abundant feels and zero surprises." Two bookings stand apart. Giorgio Moroder, the Italian disco maven turned composer, is among the most intriguing names on the poster. Four Tet returns to the desert half a decade after his 2022 set, in which he dropped from Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" into Hol!'s "Country Riddim" — a moment Kieran Hebden later described as "one of the most powerful feelings I've experienced in my whole life." Underworld, the Avalanches, Peggy Gou, Barry Can't Swim and the Amelie Lens x Sara Landry pairing complete the tier.

Madonna returns — but not to the main stage

Madonna will skip the main stage again, two decades after her Indio debut. In 2006, fresh off 2005's Confessions on a Dance Floor, she stirred controversy by choosing the Sahara Tent over the main stage; her emergence from a giant disco ball to "Hung Up" now sits in Coachella mythos alongside Daft Punk's pyramid and Beyoncé's HBCU tribute. The Confessions II era began in earnest when Madonna appeared during Sabrina Carpenter's headlining set in April, making a return to where it all began feel, as Green framed it, inevitable. His verdict on what fans should expect: "You will watch the Madonna stand behind the decks and lip sync and you will like it."

A reggaetón comeback and a pensioners' rock tier

Daddy Yankee at Coachella almost did not happen. The reggaetón pioneer announced his retirement in 2022 with Legendaddy and a farewell tour, then returned three years later as a converted Christian promoting the devotional album Lamento en Baile. Kiana Mickles expects the King of Reggaeton to know what the crowd wants: the tongue-tying opening of "Gasolina," "La Despedida" and — fingers crossed — a Bad Bunny appearance for "Soltera."

The rock and legacy tier reads like a raid on the AARP mailing list. Beastie Boys' Mike D arrives with Thank You, his solo debut. Nirosta Steel makes a rare festival appearance with his queer art-pop. Social Distortion reps old-school Californian hardcore for the 48th year running. The Damned, one of Britain's founding punk bands, remain, in Corcoran's assessment, as wily live as ever in their 70s. After a decade of club culture and looksmaxxing crowds, Coachella seems intent on proving that youth is a mindset.

What does this change for festivalgoers? The 2027 edition promises a dance-heavy, rock-veteran-laced weekend with headline star power deferred to album cycles still to come — and the undercard, as ever, is where the discoveries wait.