Country fans were divided over the line-up for the 2025 Stagecoach Festival, which attracts around 75,000 people annually.
While headliners Luke Combs, Jelly Roll and Zach Bryan are all established superstars in the country music world, many were stunned by the number of artists set to take the stage at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California.
These include Lana Del Rey, who hasn’t even released her first country album yet, rapper Nelly, Goo Goo Dolls, T-Pain, Creed and the Backstreet Boys.
By the time Stagecoach rolls around, April 25-27 next year, Del Rey will have already released her long-awaited country album Lasso, which is expected to be released later this month.
She first announced she was working on a country album in January, during the Billboard x NMPA Songwriter Awards.
Her transition to country music came after she released a cover version of John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads in December and performed a number of covers of popular country songs, such as Tammy Wynette’s Stand by Your Man.
Country fans were divided over Lana Del Rey’s name on the 2025 Stagecoach Festival lineup, having performed at the Rock en Seine Festival last month
In April, the Summertime Sadness hitmaker teamed up with Paul Cauthen for a surprise duet of Unchained Melody during his Stagecoach performance, after headlining Coachella for two weekends in a row.
Despite Del Rey testing the country waters for a while now, one X user angrily tweeted, “Wait, she’s not country [sobbing emoji].
“She will never be Kacey Musgraves,” shouted another.
A third accused her of “wanting to be a country artist so badly.”
A fourth admitted they missed it when Del Rey “wasn’t obsessed with country.”
“Can Lana stop acting like a country artist and realize who she is,” a fifth complained.
However, some fans were in favor of her playing Stagecoach, predicting she would be “amazing.”
“That’s an unexpected but cool twist! Lana at Stagecoach will definitely add a unique vibe to the line-up,” enthused one.
While headliners Luke Combs, Jelly Roll and Zach Bryan are all established superstars in the country music world, many were left stunned by the number of artists set to take the stage at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California.
These include Lana Del Rey, who hasn’t even released a country album yet, rapper Nelly, Goo Goo Dolls, T-Pain, Creed and Backstreet Boys (the country music festival pictured in 2016)
One of her loyal fans even tweeted that they were going to Stagecoach, even though they didn’t like country music. “Just to see Lana” and “pretend it’s Coachella.”
Others were frustrated that she wasn’t the headliner, but attributed the decision to the fact that she “wasn’t quite into the country genre at the moment.”
Last month, Del Rey assured her fans that her country album won’t sound all that different from her other records.
“All my albums are somewhat rooted in Americana, unless it’s an album like Honeymoon that has a jazz flair, so I don’t think it’ll be a huge departure,” she said Fashion.
Despite Del Rey testing the country’s waters for a while now, one X user angrily tweeted, “Wait, she’s not from the country [sobbing emoji]’
“She will never be Kacey Musgraves,” another fired, while a third accused her of “wanting to be a country artist so badly.”
However, some fans were supportive of her joining Stagecoach, predicting she would be “amazing”
“That’s an unexpected but cool twist! Lana at Stagecoach will definitely add a unique vibe to the lineup,” someone enthused
A Z user said he would go to Stagecoach even though he didn’t even like country music, “just to see Lana” and “pretend it’s Coachella”
Del Rey continued, “It’ll definitely be a little more lighthearted lyrically and more geared toward a classic country, Americana, Southern Gothic production — which, again, a lot of my songs already are.”
Lasso will be the hitmaker’s tenth studio LP, following her March 2023 album Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.
Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Alternative Music Album at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards.
Her song A&W is nominated for both Song of the Year and Best Alternative Music Performance, and Candy Necklace, featuring Jon Batiste, is nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. In total, she has five nominations.
2024 marked a number of milestones in Del Rey’s career, including her first-ever U.S. headlining performance at Fenway Park and her headlining performance at Coachella.
The alternative pop star received rave reviews for her performances at Coachella.
This is the second time in the past three years that Luke Combs has headlined the festival; seen in 2019
Meanwhile, Jelly Roll (seen above last month) will make his headlining debut at Stagecoach
Zach Bryan will close out the first night of Stagecoach 2025 (seen in June 2024)
Her performance at Coachella came ten years after her last performance at the festival.
She was previously scheduled to perform in 2020, but the festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.