BINI makes Coachella history
On Friday, April 10, Filipino pop group BINI became the first Filipino group to perform at Coachella — a milestone for representation on one of the world’s biggest festival stages. (Rolling Stone reported BINI’s historic set; the LA Times’ day‑one live coverage also listed BINI among opening‑day highlights). (rollingstone.com) (latimes.com).
A girl group from the Philippines walked onto a Coachella stage on Friday night and did something no Filipino group had done before at the festival. Rolling Stone reported that BINI became the first Filipino group to perform at Coachella on April 10, 2026. (rollingstone.com) That happened at a festival that has spent 25 years turning desert sets into global career jumps. The Los Angeles Times included BINI among the opening-day highlights of Coachella 2026, alongside headliner Sabrina Carpenter and other major acts on Day 1. (latimes.com) BINI is not a four-person band that appeared out of nowhere. The group has eight members — Aiah, Colet, Maloi, Gwen, Stacey, Mikha, Jhoanna, and Sheena — and its official site says the act was built under ABS-CBN’s Star Hunt Academy in the Philippines. (bini.abs-cbn.com) By the time Coachella booked them, BINI already had songs big enough to travel outside the Philippines. Their official profile says “Pantropiko” and “Salamin, Salamin” held the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on top Filipino music charts at the same time. (bini.abs-cbn.com) Their Coachella set leaned into the songs that built that audience. Forbes reported that the group’s setlist included “Blush,” “Pantropiko,” “Blink Twice,” and “Salamin, Salamin” during the April 10 performance. (forbes.com) The stage mattered too. The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin’s Day 1 recap said BINI filled the Mojave tent, which is one of Coachella’s large covered stages and often the place where rising acts try to turn curiosity into a crowd. (dailynews.com) This was also not a one-night invitation. Coachella’s 2026 schedule runs across two weekends, April 10 to 12 and April 17 to 19, and pre-festival coverage noted BINI was slated for both Friday lineups. (usatoday.com) (gmanetwork.com) The group had been talking about the slot as more than a booking. In pre-show coverage highlighted by ABS-CBN, member Colet said Coachella felt like “a great responsibility” because BINI wanted “to open the door to more Filipino art.” (abs-cbn.com) After the set, the story got even more concrete: this was Filipino pop music on one of the most watched festival streams in the world, not just a niche success back home. USA Today’s Coachella guide noted that the 2026 festival was available to watch live from home, which meant BINI’s debut reached far beyond the crowd standing in Indio. (usatoday.com) And the next step is already scheduled. GMA News reported before the festival that, after Coachella, BINI is set to appear at the Grammy Museum for the “Global Spin Live!” series in Los Angeles. (gmanetwork.com)
