Coachella 2022: Maggie Rogers brings colorful, energetic set to Coachella's main stage

"I'm so excited for Maggie, I haven't seen her in SO long," one festivalgoer wearing a Maggie Rogers t-shirt exclaimed as a mass of fans streamed toward Coachella's main stage before Maggie Rogers' early-evening set on Sunday. 

A large crowd turned out to reunite with the folk-pop star, who last toured in 2019 following the release of "Heard It in a Past Life," her major-label album debut. The 27-year-old performer made her Coachella debut at the Gobi stage that same year. 

The crowd began screaming for Rogers as soon as the opening of "Give A Little" began playing while the video screen showed a black-and-white feed of Rogers approaching the stage. At one point in the show, the crowd broke into a chant of "Maggie, Maggie, Maggie." 

“I have been waiting three years for this, it is so beautiful to see all of you. After the past couple years and whatever’s going on right now we all need release ... we’re here to help you let go," said Rogers. 

Rogers kept the energy up throughout her set, inviting the crowd to sing and dance along — at one point breaking into a rendition of Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody." Rogers herself kept dancing and smiling throughout the set. 

"I know it's the third day, and I know it's hot, but I don’t know about you, I came here to dance," she said before breaking into the classic anthem. 

The visuals were relatively simple but colorful, mostly showing a feed of Rogers on the stage tinged with different color overlays for each song — blue for "Say It," pink for "Love You for a Long Time," orange for "Give a Little." 

Rogers has had a productive few years during the pandemic. In late 2020,  she released “Notes from the Archive: Recordings 2011-2016,” a compilation of songs she recorded during that period — including from "The Echo," Rogers’ debut self-released studio album that was released during her senior year of high school in 2012.

In early 2020, she retreated to the coast of Maine and began writing the 12 songs that would become "Surrender, her new album that will be released in July." She also started grad school at Harvard, studying "the spirituality of public gatherings and the ethics of power in pop culture."

Rogers played several songs from "Heard It in a Past Life," including "Fallingwater," "Retrograde," and "Alaska," the song that propelled her to stardom after it brought Pharrell Williams to tears. 

She also brought out her guitar for "Love You for a Long Time," a single she released in 2019, and closed the set with “That’s Where I Am,” the first single off her upcoming album “Surrender." She released the song earlier this week. 

Rogers wrote the peppy anthem in a nod to the type of song that "could run in the end credits of a romcom," a fitting end to her long-awaited return to the Coachella stage. 

"I knew for my own sanity I needed to make something that sounded hopeful — some musical world Icould escape to. I watched 10 things I hate about you on a plane and thought it could be fun to make something that sounded like it could run in the end credits of a romcom. Those songs always seemed so sure of themselves. Joyful. Everything tied up with a bow. A happy ending, that’s what i was craving. Needed it more than anything," she wrote in an Instagram post.