Beyonce Cancels On Coachella, Planning To Return In 2018

The Associated Press is reporting that Beyoncé will not make it to Indio, California in April for her planned headlining performance at Coachella, one of the world's most successful and highest-grossing music festivals.

In a joint statement, Beyoncé's Parkwood Entertainment and festival promotion company Goldenvoice write:

"Following the advice of her doctors to keep a less rigorous schedule in the coming months, Beyoncé has made the decision to forgo performing at the 2017 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival," the statement said. "However, Goldenvoice and Parkwood are pleased to confirm that she will be a headliner at the 2018 festival. Thank you for your understanding."

Coachella runs for two concurrent weekends, during which Beyoncé was scheduled to headline the festival's second nights. Radiohead and Kendrick Lamar will respectively perform on Coachella's Friday and Sunday night rosters.

As the AP notes, this was the first time a woman was scheduled to headline the event since Björk performed there in 2007. According to The Los Angeles Times, 99,000 people attend each of Coachella's six days, for which tickets regularly sell out months in advance.

A sign of what was to come could be seen when Beyoncé performed at the Grammys on Feb. 12, in a striking multimedia medley of two songs from Lemonade, for which she won best urban contemporary album.

"Nothing less than stunning," Denene Miller called her Grammy performance in an essay for NPR, "with airy yellow goddess robes floating about her crowned head and her baby, Blue Ivy, joyfully prancing and giggling around her bare, pregnant belly, she created a powerful, dramatic piece of art, an exultant narrative for black motherhood."

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