Music

This Aussie Artist Just Became The Highest Billed Female DJ In Coachella History

"I'm speechless."

Alison Wonderland

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

A day before Beyoncé stepped up for her show-stopping headlining set at Coachella, an Aussie DJ was casually writing herself into the festival’s history books.

With a mammoth performance in the Sahara Tent on the opening night, Sydney DJ and producer Alison Wonderland officially became the highest billed female DJ in the festival’s history.

Around 20,000 people crammed into the Sahara on Friday to see the ‘I Want U’ hitmaker play through tracks from her just-released album, Awake. She pulled out a couple of surprises for the occasion: cracking out her old cello to play a special mash-up of Virtual Self’s ‘Ghost Voices’ and her track ‘Easy’, and bringing up rapper Trippie Redd to help her out on their collab ‘High’.

“It was probably the most special show ever because I was playing mainly my own music and I felt like I took some really big risks. I’m speechless about it still,” Alison told triple j Breakfast this morning.

“I’ve been to Coachella a bunch of times and I’ve never seen the Sahara Tent overflowing. It was the craziest view I’ve ever had… I couldn’t even see where the ferris wheel was because there was so many people.”

The significance of the moment wasn’t lost on her either, although she told triple j she’s determined “not to bring gender” into her career.

“This is how I feel: when I’m on stage I don’t really think about my gender, I’m not defining myself as a woman or a man up there,” Alison said. “I think the more people talk about it, the more it actually separates men and women in the music industry.

“But in saying that, I think it’s really important to see that women are moving up on bills, which is great because the divide is getting smaller and smaller — that is amazing.”

Front and centre of all the madness of it all was Alison’s Dad, who was caught dutifully filming all the big moments like a true dad would:

If you missed the set the first time around, never fear: Wonderland will be back to do it all over again this weekend for Coachella round two.

Photo: Alison Wonderland Facebook