Six years, 2,088 days, 50,112 hours, 3,002,720 minutes. That is how long many have been awaiting Frank Ocean’s promised return to the spotlight. Weeks of endless talking about his upcoming performance and annoying every person who brought him up has officially come to an end.

Here’s a bit of background information… Frank Ocean is a music artist beloved by many for his variety of “neo soul” music. He had sadly lost his brother Ryan in a car crash in 2020 before headlining that year’s Coachella, and he has not performed since.

That was until he was announced to be headlining this year’s Coachella that kicked off this past weekend. When it was announced, I think I would’ve broken a window with a scream if I wasn’t frozen in shock. And though I begged my parents to somehow come up with over a thousand dollars to venture to the festival and witness a 35-year-old man sing about self control, I knew this wouldn’t be the case.

But, I was content just knowing that it would be livestreamed—because it was better than nothing. I had everything planned out. Nap, shower, snacks, turn on my LED lights, and finally turn on the livestream and watch him perform some of my favorites.

That was until a tweet went around and made the devastating announcement that this man was not going to be livestreamed on the official Coachella channel like all the other artists had been. I was in pieces.

But, I was not alone in my misery. Fellow freshman Lesly Andres and I had frantically searched for a platform he would be streamed on (preferably for free, though I would still pay heinous amounts of money for this). Then we came along our saving grace—Instagram lives.

We proceeded to stay up and watch the heavenly performance, living vicariously through those who attended. “It was too much, so I stayed home the next day. I needed to process everything,” Lesly commented.

After missing the first weekend, Lesly and I decided to try one more time and see if my mother would somehow allow me to go to that teenage infested valley… But, then came another announcement.

He wouldn’t be performing AT ALL the second weekend.

Yet again, I was shattered.

To those who went to Coachella and posted, I thank you for your service and am very jealous of you. And to those who will be attending, I’ll continue to live vicariously through you this weekend. To the readers who are fans of Frank, I am sorry for our losses, but hopefully we can get an album in the near future (probably not, but we can pray). And finally to Frank, thanks for the countless gut wrenching songs and for saving me the trip (and money) to Coachella. I guess I’ll have to wait another six years, but until then, I think the Coachella footage will have to suffice.