Taemin Made History at Coachella. Then the Sound Cut Out.
Eighteen years into a career that started when he was 14, Taemin walked out onto the Mojave Stage on April 11 as the first Korean male solo artist ever booked for an official Coachella set. He had 50 minutes. He used six of them to debut songs no one had heard before.
The set opened with "Sexy in the Air" and "WANT" before moving into two unreleased tracks, "Permission" and "Parasite." The crowd at Indio already knew the catalog well enough to sing along to Korean lyrics. By the time Taemin cycled through "MOVE," "Guilty," and "Heaven" - the signature choreography sequences that built his reputation as one of K-pop's most precise performers - and then sat down at a grand piano to preview new material, the Mojave Stage had produced something the festival doesn't often see: an artist using a career retrospective to announce what comes next.
He debuted six new songs in total, closing with "Let Me Be the One," "Sober," and "1004 (Oct. 4th)." One of them, "Parasite," drew immediate attention online. Fans on X noted that lyrics including "you're blowing my cash and flexing my name" appeared to reference his February 2026 split from Big Planet Made Entertainment - a departure triggered by alleged unpaid settlements reportedly exceeding 10 billion KRW (approximately $6.8 million USD) and a contract signed with an outside company without his consent. Big Planet Made confirmed the termination was mutual but declined to comment further. Taemin signed with Galaxy Corporation - the AI entertainment company that also manages G-Dragon - in March.
The moment that will define coverage of the set, however, was technical. During "IDEA," as Taemin shouted "Let's go!" to the crowd, the online livestream cut out entirely for eight seconds. Sound returned, then crackled and popped for another minute and 45 seconds before stabilizing - disrupting the song at its peak. Fans watching remotely were vocal. "This is embarrassing for Coachella," one wrote on X. "He waited his entire career for this and the stream couldn't hold for 50 minutes." The glitch was in the broadcast feed, not the in-person audio; those at the venue heard the full performance without interruption.
The context is worth stating plainly. ATEEZ performed at Coachella in 2024 as the first K-pop boy group on the festival's official lineup. What Taemin's slot represented was something different: a solo artist, not a group, entering a festival infrastructure that has historically been more comfortable with ensembles. His slot on the Mojave Stage - sandwiched between Royel Otis and PinkPantheress on Saturday night - placed him in front of a mixed crowd, not a dedicated K-pop audience. The fact that the crowd was already singing along in Korean suggested the fandom traveled. How much of the Mojave Stage was organic discovery is harder to say.
Taemin told his agency after the show: "I've been waiting for this moment on the Coachella stage for a long time. I will cherish this moment today, and I hope it will be a good memory for you." He performs again at Coachella Weekend 2 on April 18.
