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Music

Can Daft Punk Just Headline Coachella Already So We Can Stop with These Damn Rumors?

With Beyonce pulling out of her headlining spot, the rumor mill is in overdrive.
Daft Punk, by David Black

Is 2017 the year Daft Punk fans finally get lucky? Just when you thought rumors of the duo's long-anticipated return to Coachella had finally died down, Beyoncé bowing out from her headlining spot has thrust them back into the spotlight.

As Consequence of Sound reports, UK online betting exchange Betfair has Daft Punk listed as the 3-1 favorites to replace the Lemonade singer at the Southern California festival in April, followed by her husband Jay-Z (5-1), Lady Gaga (7-1), and Kanye West (7-1). Other artists include The Weeknd (10-1), Rihanna (10-1), Bruno Mars (12-1), Frank Ocean (16-1), and Beyoncé's sister Solange (25-1), all of whom just released new albums. There's also rising EDM titans The Chainsmokers (12-1), who just announced their debut album and also have the mainstream fanbase to follow Calvin Harris, who in his performance last year became Coachella's first dance-music headliner.

But few dance acts would be as big a get as Daft Punk, whose last Coachella performance in 2006 changed the live dance-music game with their iconic pyramid setup. In 2013, they also premiered teasers for their new album, Random Access Memories, at the festival in a genius marketing ploy. However a long-running joke their (non-)presence at the festival may seem, many fans presumably weren't laughing when that year's headliners, Phoenix teased "a few surprises" for the night, only to bring out R. Kelly. Earlier this month, the French robots came out of hiding once more to perform at the Grammy Awards with The Weekend, for whom they produced two tracks on his new album Starboy.

Perhaps we'd be more enthusiastic if they weren't already constantly being rumored to headline every major festival lineup or finally go on tour. As much as we want to believe that this will finally be the year Daft Punk make their live comeback (for real), odds are we'll just be (daft) punked yet again.