Emily Bashforth
Published April 10, 2026 4:42pm
Updated April 10, 2026 4:42pm
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Coachella headliner Karol G will make history this weekend (Picture: AP)
Coachella headliner Karol G has been warned about speaking out against injustice, as she could face major repercussions.
The Colombian singer-songwriter (real name Carolina Giraldo Navarro) is hugely successful and influential among reggaeton and urban pop genres, with a 71million-strong following on Instagram alone and eight Latin Grammys to her name.
She’s due to perform at California festival Coachella this weekend, joining fellow headliners Sabrina Carpenter and Justin Bieber for the annual desert party, which has become one of the highest-grossing festivals in the world.
However, despite her popularity, Karol, the first Latina artist to top the bill at Coachella, has been instructed to keep her performances neutral.
In a new interview, the 35-year-old said she’s keen to use her platform to address inequalities across the United States, such as the tactics of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), which have sparked angry protests across the country.
On the potential risks of doing so, Karol told Playboy: ‘People will say, “It’s better you don’t… Because if you say the thing, maybe the next day you’ll get a call, ‘Hey, we are taking your visa away’.”
The Grammy-winning star has been warned about the risks of speaking out politically (Picture: Monica Schipper/Getty Images)
‘You become bait because some people want to show their power.’
Still, Karol feels strongly about ‘representing [her] community’.
‘I don’t want to just say “ICE Out” and have nothing come from it,’ she said in a nod to the phrase that largely gained prominence during the January 2026 Minnesota protests. Several stars also wore it on pin badges during awards season at events like the Oscars.
‘I’m probably going to go a little harder than that,’ Medellín-born Karol stated. ‘I just want to represent my community.’
She added that, ‘as a human being’, she wants her words to ‘mean more’.
‘I’m not saying that I’m not going to do it; what I’m saying is that I would do it and will do it with my soul. But I want to sit down and understand, in my head: Here’s what that meant.’
She feels strongly about ‘representing [her] community’ (Picture: Jason Sean Weiss/BFA.com/Shutterstock)
On headlining Coachella, Karol also said in the interview that it feels like the ‘beginning’ of something important, given that it’ll mark ‘the first time in [her] life’ that she’ll see herself ‘as the artist in the same calibre as the stage that [she’s] stepping on.’
‘When I received the call, I felt like a huge weight fell on me,’ she reflected.
‘I feel very blessed to be part of a generation that is trying to change the narrative and raise our voice for the community.’
The performer is no stranger to speaking out, having previously vocalised her support for the LGBTQ+ community, which makes up a large portion of her fanbase.
‘I love people who can go out into the world and be fearless,’ she told Vibe in 2020, praising their ‘beautiful energy’.
That same year, though, she faced backlash as the Black Lives Matter movement gained ground, tweeting a photo of her black and white French bulldog with the caption: ‘The perfect example of Black and White TOGETHER looking beautiful. #BlackLivesMatter.’
The California festival’s lineup boasts a whole host of huge names this year – although many have criticised it as the ‘worst’ one yet (Picture: Coachella)
Fellow headliner Sabrina Carpenter last performed at the festival two years ago (Picture: Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images)
Justin Bieber completes this year’s headliners after making a surprise appearance with Ariana Grande in 2019 (Picture: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for AG)
After being branded ‘tone deaf’ for the post, she deleted the tweet and issued a statement to reiterate her intentions.
‘I was wrong and I apologise,’ Karol penned. ‘I want to make clear that my intentions were right in the photo I posted earlier. I meant to say that racism is terrible and that I cannot begin to understand it…There is only one race and that is the human race. I recognise that the way I expressed myself was not right.’
Comment now What’s your verdict on this year’s Coachella lineup?Comment NowShe continued: ‘I stand with Black Lives Matter. Under no circumstance should ANYONE experience such systematic oppression because of the colour of their skin or for belonging to any minority group and I SUPPORT the protests and actions taken during these times to end police brutality and racism.’
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Karol’s Coachella set has already been tipped as a cultural milestone, following on from Bad Bunny’s 2023 slot, where he became the first Latin American artist to headline. That same year, Blackpink became the first Asian group to take to the main stage.
Other artists on the lineup this year include The xx, Addison Rae, Iggy Pop, Teddy Swims, Katseye, Sombr, Wet Leg, FKA Twigs, and PinkPantheress.
Coachella takes place across two weekends, the first being April 10-12, then again on April 17-19.
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