Coachella is known for being plagued with technical difficulties due to high desert winds. This year, during the first weekend of the festival, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj lost sound in their earpieces, thus leaving the artists in a garbled, awkward mess. Luckily, the second weekend seemingly went off without a hitch — except for one thing. Grande got hit in the chest with a lemon.
Not even the most adept sound guy or burliest bouncer could have saved Grande from the lemon launch.
The lemon incident has left fans with a boatload of questions. Who threw the lemon? Why did they throw a lemon? Did that lemon even have a wristband or did it sneak onto the grounds No Cameras Allowed-style?
With so many questions floating around the internet, and no comment from Grande’s camp, many have drummed up theories as to why “life” (aka some hater) gave Grande lemons — a single, strategically thrown lemon, rather. The most popular theory so far is that the BeyHive is behind Lemongate.
Rumor has it Grande got paid double what Beyoncé was paid to headline Coachella in 2018. Grande, who stepped in last minute after Kanye West fell through, was reportedly paid a whopping $8 million, whereas Beyoncé reportedly received $4 million. To send a message, the Hive threw a lemon to pay homage to Bey’s Lemonade.
ARIANA SWEETIE IM SO SORRY ABOUT THAT LEMON BUT... I CANT BELIEVE CHRIS AND I SAW THIS RIGHT IN FRONT OF US JSKSJW pic.twitter.com/SoJvdEwQjn
— kayleigh (@KayleighPerezz) April 22, 2019
However, this rumor was put to rest on April 19th after The Blast reported the headliners were paid equally — $4 million for each performance.
But tensions still remained high after fans saw how much work Bey put into her Coachella set in the recently-released documentary Homecoming.
did beyoncé throw that lemon at ariana ?? 🍋 lmao beychella impact is real 💀 #arichella https://t.co/YzDbca3a1N
— joseph ★ (@stussyjoseph) April 22, 2019
Perhaps members of the BeyHive didn’t get The Blast’s memo. Or maybe they’re just waiting to see the cold, hard facts.
This has BeyHive written all over it
— G FAZO🤍💫 (@gabbrinkley) April 22, 2019
Regardless of the reason behind the lemon launch, fans are having a hard time wrapping their head around why it happened in the first place. It’s truly so disrespectful.
You could have made a nice lemonade. But no — you went low.
Honestly. Keep your lemons to yourself like a responsible adult.
On the other hand, it was thankfully just a citrus fruit and not something more damaging. That means it’s kind of okay to make light of Lemongate, right?
some person really threw a whole ass lemon at ariana grande while performing, this shit is fucking hilarious
— aj🩸certified bhaalist (@OrinTheRed_) April 22, 2019
The memes that have come out of the lemon incident are truly top-notch. We have a feeling even Grande would laugh at them.
The jokes are just writing themselves at this point. Sorry, but…
Give us all the Vine callbacks. Give us all the AI voices.
Per usual, Grande handled the entire ordeal with grace. She mentioned it once, and then moved the heck on.
Dodging that lemon like ^^ 🍋
— Andrew Matarazzo (@andrewmatarazzo) April 22, 2019
But, yeah. We agree. It was totally unacceptable.
the lemon when it was thrown at ariana #arichella pic.twitter.com/QHTlFLs7sU
— jamie (@jamjamgrande) April 22, 2019
The Arianators will find the person who committed this heinous crime, and will deal with them accordingly. Watch out.
Like, we’re serious. They’re out for blood.
Again — Grande is totally fine and seemingly unfazed by the lemon. If the BeyHive was at work that fateful night, message received.
Arichella, Weekend 2 (2019) pic.twitter.com/rhNAS4K7pf
— grant👨🏻🦱 (@urdadssidepiece) April 22, 2019
Although this was kind of funny, let’s agree not to throw citrus fruits (or any fruit/vegetable/thing) at performers on stage. It’s not cool and could have caused bigger problems than it did.
