Ariana Grande Brings 90s Nostalgia to New Levels at Coachella

“Coachella, I’ve been rehearsing my whole fucking life for this moment. Make some noise for NSYNC!” Ariana Grande screamed onstage, introducing, yes, NSYNC (well, four-fifths of NSYNC, at least) a few songs into her Coachella headlining set Sunday night.

To headline Coachella—as Lady Gaga and Beyoncé have in recent years—is to face massive expectations. It’s a slot given to an artist who is at that moment of peak cultural relevance and artistic prowess, who the organizers believe will captivate both the thousands gathered in Indio, California, for the festival, as well as the thousands more staying up very late to watch on livestreams across the country. (And, in Beyoncé’s case, all over again a year later on Netflix.)

Grande is a very different performer than Beyoncé, and at a different stage in her career, but she is arguably the most dominant figure in pop music at the moment, and she certainly committed fully to her task at hand, putting together a turbocharged setlist that featured the sharpest of her offerings while also incorporating high-profile guests and surprises.

Grande samples NSYNC’s “It Makes Me Ill” on the track “Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored,” off her most recent album, Thank U, Next. And she did tease an appearance by the boy band on her Instagram and Twitter feeds over the past few days, sharing a video of her lip-syncing along to “Tearin’ Up My Heart” (caption: “90s baby”) and also footage of her and her mother at a 1999 NSYNC concert in Florida. So this made it slightly less of a surprise when four members of the band arrived onstage, but no less the sort of pop-culture spectacle that would become the sort of social-media moment Grande has become quite skilled at conjuring.

Grande had clearly studied up on the choreography (or maybe there was not much studying necessary), as she seamlessly blended in to the group, essentially becoming their fifth member. (Justin Timberlake wrapped up his Man of the Woods tour in Connecticut on Saturday night; perhaps we can hope Grande’s star power lures J.T. out for weekend No. 2?) “I can die now,” Grande said as the four men left the stage. The boy band told the crowd, “Thank you, Coachella, this has been a dream of ours.”

By Kevin Mazur/Getty Images.

Nostalgia—particularly for the 90s and early 2000s—has been having a moment in pop music, with Britney Spears and the boy bands clearly an important influence for the current crop of pop stars who were at various stages of childhood back then—Grande, Halsey, and Troye Sivan included. It makes perfect sense that an artist as “online” as Grande would actualize that influence onstage. Grande also nodded to her “90s baby” roots by bringing out Diddy and Mase for a performance of 1997’s “Mo Money Mo Problems” that followed a rendition of “Break Your Heart Right Back,” which interpolates that song. (Diddy paid tribute to Tupac, Biggie, and Mac Miller onstage, and said of Grande, “Give it up for my sister. She’s been through a whole lot. She’s still standing.”)

The rest of the set was a frenetic tour de force of Grande’s hits, many of which came from her two most recent albums, both released in the past eight months. In each section, she seemed to up the font size by a few notches. She brought out Nicki Minaj for “Side to Side” and “Bang Bang.” She performed “Breathin” with a group of violinists and a fireworks display. She played some audio from First Wives Club (more 90s nostalgia!) before launching into “Be Alright.”

The 20-plus-song set ended with a pretty undeniable string of five smash hits: “Into You,” “Dangerous Woman,” “Break Free,” “No Tears Left to Cry,” and “Thank U, Next,” all different in tempo, vibe, and energy—appropriate given Grande’s varied output—but which served as a whole to whip the crowd into a frenzy and send them home on a high. She’ll do it all again next weekend.

Josh Duboff

Royal Watch