Hello, my fellow music festival fans! It is I, Mr. Daniel Leon, with another article about who is going to headline Coachella.

In my last column, back in April, I went over artists that could have headlined Coachella 2021, if it had taken place.

This time, I will be going over who could be the other two Coachella headliners for 2022.

Paul Tollett, who is the president and CEO of Goldenvoice, has already confirmed that Rage Against the Machine will headline Coachella 2022, while Frank Ocean will headline Coachella 2023.

Coachella confirmed the return of house music legends Swedish House Mafia. SHM is a supergroup of house music DJs consisting of Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso.

This does beg the question, is SHM a big enough act to be a headliner? The short answer is… well… depends on who you ask.

If you are asking me, I would say yes, just based on the fact I am a fan of Electronic Dance Music, and their reunion is a big deal. I had the chance to see them at Coachella 2012 (my favorite Coachella ever) and when they sub-headlined they did not disappoint; it was such an amazing performance.

But does the average Coachella festival-goer know them enough to be booked as a headliner? For the sake of argument, let’s have SHM sub-headline again, and see who else could headline.

Here are three other artists I think could headline in 2022:

Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar (or K-Dot, his alias) has a new album that could be released at any moment. This would be a great opportunity for him to headline again.

He last headlined in 2017, an awesome show I was lucky enough to see.

In my humble opinion, K-Dot is the greatest rapper performing and making art today. He recently just headlined Day N Vegas, performing selected songs from his entire discography, but he didn’t announce his new album, as some were expecting.

I don’t think anybody would mind the return of K-Dot to Indio this April.

Lana Del Rey

Originally set as a sub-headliner for Coachella 2020, Lana Del Rey has released two albums in 2021, “Chemtrails Over The Country Club” and “Blue Banisters.”

“Blue Banisters” being my favorite of the two, but COTCC was good, too.

She has never disappointed when it comes to delivering stellar albums.

I’ve seen her perform twice, once at the Outdoor Stage of Coachella 2014 (tied for the most people I’ve seen at that stage, along with Billie Eilish during Coachella 2019) and the second time at The House of Blues in Anaheim.

Both times, she held the crowd in the palm of her hand, singing with the controlled and gentle ferocity of a lounge singer from the 1940s.

She would be an excellent headliner without a doubt.

Post Malone

I’m including Post Malone too, but I will say, I saw him at Coachella 2018, and that was one of the worst performances I have ever seen at the festival.

I will give him the benefit of the doubt, and assume he just had a bad night.

Conclusion

I will now talk about artists who are definitely not headlining Coachella due to the radius clause.

What exactly is a radius clause? A radius clause is when an artist’s performance rights are limited to only headlining Coachella and not having any concerts within 250 miles, or concerts four months before Coachella and after.

A good example is when Radiohead headlined Coachella in 2017. They played Santa Barbara and Berkeley around the two Coachella weekends, but couldn’t have any shows in Los Angeles during this time.

Artists will usually announce their spring tours around October and November and leave Southern California dates suspiciously missing during the Coachella weekends in April.

This is a good indication of which artists will be playing Coachella.

Or, artists can announce Los Angeles concert dates for the spring, and this will automatically rule them out for Coachella, which currently includes Adele, Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, Coldplay, The Fugees, H.E.R., Jack White, Lorde, Olivia Rodrigo, Red Hot Chili Peppers.

That’s my take on Coachella 2022. I also predict Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion will be at Coachella next year as sub-headliners. My fingers are crossed Ella Mai is on the poster next year.

We will see the first week of January when they officially announce the lineup if I’m right.

If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read my column. Let me know in the comment section what your thoughts are for Coachella 2022.

Daniel Leon is the office specialist for the counseling department at La Quinta High School. He can be reached at [email protected]