Beyoncé made history this weekend at the annual, Coachella music festival—and on YouTube.
She not only became the first black woman to headline Coachella, the singer broke viewership records on YouTube. Beyoncé 105-minute set on Saturday attracted 458,000 simultaneous global viewers at its peak, ranking it as most viewed Coachella performance ever, according to a YouTube spokeswoman.
The 36-year-old performer was joined on stage near Palm Springs, Calif. By dozens of musicians and dancers as well as her sister Solange Knowles, former Destiny’s Child bandmates, Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland, and her husband Jay-Z.
Beyoncé was one of the many artists who helped Coachella draw a record 41 million live viewers from 232 countries during its first weekend, making it the most viewed live music festival ever on YouTube. Streaming live performances and events is becoming a growing part of YouTube’s business. Coachella had 24.5 million live views in 2017. In 2018, Coachella live views grew 75% to 41 million.
The performance created immediate buzz online, giving birth to the term “Beychella,” a mashup of Beyoncé and Coachella.
Beyoncé was supposed to perform at Coachella last year, but had to pass on it because of her pregnancy. She delivered her twins in June.
