As promised, Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil had surprise guests in store for the second of their two Coachella 2025 performances. Instead of the LL Cool J medley that closed out the symphony’s set on weekend 1, Saturday night’s show climaxed with Dave Grohl fronting the symphony for two Foo Fighters songs, followed by actor-singer Cynthia Erivo serenading the desert masses.
Grohl did not tone anything down for the orchestral setting, belting “The World Is a Neighborhood” at the top of his lungs, followed by the more familiar Foos classic “Everlong.”
In closing the set, Erivo did not get too wicked, singing a ballad that was unknown to the audience — apparently from her forthcoming solo album — followed by Prince’s “Purple Rain.”
Another performer who joined the Phil only for the second weekend was Natasha Bedingfield, singing her 2004 international hit “Unwritten” with the help of a choir as well as the full complement of strings.
Dudamel told the crowd the Phil being at Coachella represented “maybe the best two weekends of our lives, enjoying your energy.”
The philharmonic’s set did feature some holdover guests from the previous weekend, like Venezuelan duo Cat7riel and Paco rejoining the symphony for an exciting Latin-symphonic mashup.
Jazz-pop star Laufey, who again sang her biggest hit, the bossa nova single “From the Start,” followed by her brand new song, “Silver Lining.” Laufey has a strong track record with Dudamel and the Phil; a show she did with the orchestra last summer was released as a feature film in December and came out as a live double-album for Record Store Day.
“I was an orchestra kid growing up, so this was my actual dream,” Laufey told the crowd about singing with the LA Phil. “The fact that there are so many people here for an orchestra makes me so happy for music.” The Coachella sets weren’t Laufey’s first time performing with a symphony at a major pop festival; she also pulled off that feat last summer at Lollapalooza.
The set also included a repeat of such purely instrumental pieces as John Williams’ familiar “Imperial March” from the “Star Wars” films, an instantly recognizable passage from Beethoven’s 5th, Richard Strauss’ “2001”-popularized “Also sprach Zarathustra” and an excerpt from Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” as arranged by Max Richter.
In an interview with Variety during rehearsals prior to the first weekend of Coachella, Dudamel said, “This was a dream that I had for many years,. We have the opportunity to do many wonderful things here at the Hollywood Bowl, this wonderful venue where we have the chance to interact with wonderful pop artists on different music styles that we have the chance to do. But in the context of a festival that represents a culture itself, it was always a dream. We were talking a lot about how to do it and when, and I think it’s perfect timing. We have built something very beautiful together with the team.”
He continued, “I think what we are bringing is music as one. This is something beautiful because we are diving between Wagner, Beethoven, Vivaldi and Bach with Laufey, with Paco, with LL Cool J, with Cynthia, all of these wonderful artists. So, it’s a journey. And you will see — there’s not any wall. Everything is a bridge. All music connects with the other, with the next, with the next. And we have the chance to show that music is one, when normally styles are very divided: ‘You are classical, you don’t touch this, and if you are pop, classical is so far’ — it’s not like that.
“Imagine this: We are talking about Coachella, a festival. Wagner wrote his music for a festival, and it was the most cool thing, for people to get go and listen to his operas and all of that. Wagner had his Coachella every year! And people recognize that music immediately. You know, Beethoven, my God… he didn’t have his own festival, but this is my personal opinion: He is the biggest genius, musically. of all times. And he was a rock star, the way people followed him and were connecting through his ability of transforming, through his music at the time, writers and poets.
“I think that is the reason why we are doing this: music, when it’s genuine, when you are enjoying it on the stage and you share that with people, makes people immediately connect. Immediately, if you really empathize with everything that is happening, you connect immediately with the soul of people, and people feel that they own that moment. And it’s gonna happen here. I think people at Coachella will feel how excited, how humble, excited and honored we are to be on that stage, doing all of this music as one. Yes, we have all of these wonderful artists, but it’s all like a big symphony, you know? No separations.”
