Who will headline the 2027 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 9 to 11 and 16 to 18? Even though the event is nearly a year away — and the lineup won’t be announced for months — fans are placing early bets on the online event‑betting platform Kalshi.
As of Tuesday, “Don’t Start Now” singer Dua Lipa topped the list at 61%, followed by the English rock band Radiohead at 47%, British DJ Fred Again at 43%, and K-Pop band BTS at 35%. Other artists include Billie Eilish at 23%, Bruno Mars at 22%, Taylor Swift at 17%, the now-defunct EDM duo Daft Punk at 12%, Olivia Rodrigo at 10%, and several others.
Kalshi operates as a stock market for events, but instead of buying shares in a company, users buy “Yes” or “No” contracts on whether something will happen. Each contract is sold at a price reflecting the crowd’s odds.
Do Kalshi’s numbers reflect reality or fantasy?
Kalshi is best described as a prediction market platform, but it’s hard to predict who will perform at the festival and predictions can be hard to come by, especially with the festival’s owner Goldenvoice and its proximity clause, preventing artists from performing at other North American festivals from December to May each year, often including ticketed concerts in California during that same period. It also requires artists to delay announcing tour stops in California, Arizona, Washington, and Oregon until the Coachella lineup is public.
If there’s one likelihood as a DJ headliner performing late on any of the three festival nights, it’s Fred Again, who is headlining electronic music festivals and selling out arenas. He’s the strongest candidate out of any for 2027 at the moment.
Dua Lipa’s last tour wrapped at the end of 2025 and her concert film and live album “Live From Mexico” will be released on Friday. She’s also working on her fourth album, but there’s no release date. A new album cycle, including her massive global appeal since her last performance in 2016 in the Gobi tent, would make this a great year for her to headline.
BTS is touring for the first time since 2022 after six of its seven members completed South Korea’s mandatory military service and will perform four concerts on Sept. 1-2 and 5-6 in Los Angeles at SoFi Stadium. Those concerts don’t conflict with the radius clause and the band could still headline Coachella.
In 2025, Radiohead announced it was ending its hiatus since 2018 and went on a European tour at the end of the year. There was some speculation the band would add Coachella to its 2026 calendar, but instead, Radiohead featured its 75-minute audiovisual and immersive experience “KID A MNESIA” in a newly built 17,000-square-foot bunker near the Sahara tent. Could it have been a preview for 2027? Guitarist Ed O’Brien told Rolling Stone in March that the band is planning to do 20 dates on a different continent each year.
Even though many speculate the return of the robotic EDM duo Daft Punk, whose 2006 performance became the moment a huge number of people first heard of Coachella, it’s highly unlikely since both Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo announced their split in 2021 through a very moving and emotional video titled “Epilogue.” Bangalter has moved on to a solo career and released a classical ballet score, “Mythologies,” in 2023.
Some of the artists with lower odds include 2026 headliner Justin Bieber, R&B singer Chris Brown, 2023 headliner Frank Ocean, John Mayer and more.
Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment for the Desert Sun. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Who will headline Coachella 2027? BTS, Dua Lipa among Kalshi favorites
Reporting by Brian Blueskye, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
