It’s been four years since Holly Humberstone last took to the Coachella stage. Wearing a black bikini, stripy armwarmers, camo pants, and a defiant dash of black eyeliner, the British musician enraptured the desert with a neat set of singles and EP tracks, lithely lyrical and kinetically synthy, melancholic pop that balanced earnest emotions with big-pop production. Her biggest track at the time, the luminous-versed “Scarlett,” reverberated through the crowd: “I said, ’Darlin’, will we go the distance?” fans screamed to each other, “darling” made even more delightful in international mouths.
Humberstone returns to Coachella to play the Gobi stage with an excellent debut album already under her belt and an evolved personal style. Weekend one, too, marked the release of her sophomore record, Cruel World. “It felt crazy to finally be in the desert,” says Humberstone. “I’ve made an album I’m super proud of, so I feel extremely lucky to get to share it with the world at Coachella.”
Humberstone, who has toured with Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo since, recalls being here in 2022: “I was super carefree and had this naive confidence about me! I feel like, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve weirdly become more nervous and self aware. So this time felt a little more scary, but ultimately, more rewarding.”
Holly Humberstone on weekend one of Coachella 2026.
Photo: Deanie Chen
The set kicks off with the new record’s lead single, “To Love Somebody,” a song inspired by watching a friend’s brutal heartbreak, set to full-bodied, harmonizing vocals and lyrics made to be shouted back. “It feels like a communal song, and it’s really been connecting with people in crowds in the way I hoped it would,” she says. More songs include the airy-stringed “Beauty Pageant” and the disco-inflected “White Noise.” “A lot of this new album was written with a live context in mind because of how much I love touring and my band.” It’s a super close-knit group, consisting of Lauren O’Donnell Anderson (drums), Jack Louis Rennie (guitar), and Seth Tackaberry (bass guitar and keys), who have faithfully toured and performed with her.
