Shinee's Taemin, Katseye, Bini: Asian and Asian-adjacent music acts shine at Coachella 2026
This year's Coachella music festival, happening from Apr 11 to 13 and 18 to 20 (Singapore time), features a slew of Asian artistes and acts with Asian heritage taking to the stage.
From left: Filipino girl group Bini and South Korean singer Taemin of K-pop group Shinee are amongst the Asian acts who have already taken the stage at this year's Coachella event. (Photos: Instagram/bini_ph, xoalsox)
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The first weekend of Coachella 2026 is about to end and so far, Asian and Asian-adjacent music acts have brought the heat to the California desert.
The first night of this year's Coachella saw girl group Bini become the first Filipino group to perform at the event. The group, which comprises Aiah, Colet, Maloi, Gwen, Stacey, Mikha, Jhoanna and Sheena, performed hits like Zero Pressure, Salamin, Salamin and Blink Twice.
Following their set, the group told music outlet Billboard that they were "over the moon" and proud to represent the Philippines on a global stage.
Also performing on Day 1 of Coachella 2026 was global girl group Katseye, which has several members of Asian descent: Lara, Megan, Sophia and Yoonchae.
With member Manon currently on hiatus, Katseye performed as a quintet during Coachella, thrilling audiences with hits like Gnarly and Gabriela.
The group’s set also delivered a standout moment, as they covered the megahit Golden from the Academy Award-winning film KPop Demon Hunters and brought out the singing voices behind Huntrix – Ejae, Rei Ami and Audrey Nuna – on stage to perform it with them.
Following Katseye's performance, Megan's Singaporean mother, Sylvia Lee, took to Instagram to thank fans for showing Katseye "continued love and support".
"I can’t believe that I’m actually standing in front of [the] Sahara stage watching my baby girl and her sisters crush it at their debut at Coachella!" wrote Lee. "Congratulations to Katseye and [Hybe and Geffen Records] and all the staff, the production crew and dancers for making this dream come true!"
Shinee member Taemin made history as the first-ever Korean male artiste to stage a solo performance at the renowned music festival. The 32-year-old made the most out of his set at Mojave stage on Sunday morning (Singapore time) with a mix of old favourites like Move and Heaven, as well as the debut of six new songs.
Hours earlier, Japanese singer-songwriter Fujii Kaze also made his debut at the same stage where he thrilled fans with earworms like Matsuri and Shinunoga E-wa.
The first weekend of Coachella will conclude with performances by Icelandic jazz singer Laufey, whose mother hails from China, and K-pop legends BigBang, which comprises G-Dragon, Taeyang and Daesung.
