INDIO, California — It’s astonishing that it took this long. On Sunday night, Karol G became the first Latina to ever headline Coachella — a feat she acknowledged with a swell of pride, and disbelief, during a poignant moment in her set. “I’m very happy and very proud about this, but at the same time, it feels late,” she told the crowd, noting that she wouldn’t be up there were it not for the Latino artists that had come before her, who hadn’t been afforded the same opportunity. 

But Karol G — born Carolina Giraldo in Medellín, Colombia — did not bend under the pressure of being the first. To close out Coachella, the musician turned out a high-octane performance that erupted into the biggest party of the weekend. In a breakneck, 25-song set that elevated divergent styles under the vast umbrella of Latin music, including reggaeton, mariachi and merengue, she intentionally kept the door open behind her so others could walk through it. 

The historic set got off to a shaky start, with roughly a dozen crew members visibly tinkering with the sprawling stage production before Giraldo came on (I spotted at least one ladder). A half hour after her scheduled start time, Giraldo appeared in a massive cave divided into various alcoves, writhing with her dancers to the raunchy opener “LATINA FOREVA.” A kiss-off to men on the dancefloor who start to get........

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