BIG BANG & Taemin STOLE Coachella 2026 — KATSEYE Drama, Manon's Absence & HYBE's PR Crisis

Coachella 2026 just delivered the most K-Pop-saturated weekend in festival history — and we have THOUGHTS. This week Stephanie, Peter, and Michaela break down all the drama, the tears, and the iconic moments from the desert.

We dive deep into Cat's Eye's divisive new single Pinky Up — is it a meme masterpiece or glorified skip? Then Manon's conspicuous absence from Cat's Eye's Coachella set raises some serious questions that HYBE's media-trained answers just can't dodge. Meanwhile, HYBE America's LinkedIn job postings (crisis comms experience a must 👀) tell a story of their own — Peter breaks it down with his PR professional lens.

And then — the legends showed up. BIG BANG reminded the world why they're the ones who built this, delivering an hour of pure hits that had everyone in their feelings. Taemin made history as the first Korean soloist on the Coachella stage and danced like he was defying physics.

Hit Replays this week: Madwoman by Laufey ft. Megan of KATSEYE · BM (KARD)'s new 50 Cent-inspired

banger Ooh.

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CHAPTERS

0:00 Intro — Coachella 2026 K-Pop recap

1:04 Hit Replay: Laufey — Madwoman ft. wasian infinity stones

5:57 Hit Replay: BM (KARD) — Ooh

9:29 KATSEYE — Pinky Up review: love it or hate it?

18:25 KATSEYE at Coachella — Sahara stage breakdown & Huntrix collab moment

31:38 Manon's absence: what HYBE is (and isn't) saying

38:29 HYBE America's job postings — a PR expert reads between the lines

48:03 Big Bang at Coachella — legends reclaim the stage 🔥

1:03:22 Taemin — first Korean soloist at Coachella, Mojave stage debut

1:09:55 Closing: one song stuck in our heads + outro

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