Olivia Rodrigo delighted fans at the first weekend of the 2024 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival with a surprise appearance during No Doubt’s reunion performance. It was Rodrigo’s first Coachella appearance, and the band’s first show together in nearly a decade.
Rodrigo, who’s in the midst of her Guts world tour, came running from backstage to join frontwoman Gwen Stefani in singing “Bathwater,” a bubbly ska hit from No Doubt’s 2000 album Return of Saturn. Rodrigo has cited the album as a major influence on her songwriting.
“Gwen sang about being a woman moving about this world in detail that I had never before heard put to music,” Rodrigo recently said of Stefani in an interview with Nylon. “There’s so much heart in every word she says, and every song feels like it’s ripped from the diary of the coolest girl you know.”
The Grammy-winning pop rock princess paid additional tribute to a Stefani-esque uniform circa 1996: Converse sneakers, navy blue utility pants, and a white No Doubt muscle shirt with red bra straps peeking out. The two divas giggled and skipped backstage arm in arm, leaving the band to amuse the crowd with a reggae-rock interlude.
This was No Doubt’s first return to stage since they performed at KABOO in Del Mar, California back in 2015. Coachella has long been the stomping grounds for bands reuniting, and then later going on full tours, but it’s yet to be determined if No Doubt will follow the same path. The band returns to the fest next weekend to perform on Saturday, April 20.
No Doubt served as the final act on the main stage before Tyler, the Creator’s headline set later on Saturday night. It’s been nine years since the band has performed live.
Rodrigo — who is no stranger to bringing her own surprise guests out on stage (during her four-night stint at Madison Square Garden, she brought out Noah Kahan and also Jewel) was not the only surprise guest on Weekend One. Lana Del Rey brought out Billie Eilish for a duet, and Shakira surprised fans when she announced a world tour during her surprise pop-in during Bizarrap’s set on Friday. Meanwhile, Saturday featured a surprise set from Billie Eilish and friends, and Feid jumped on stage with Blxst.
