Kanye West reportedly drops off Coachella
UPDATE: The Weeknd and Swedish House Mafia are replacing Kanye.
Kanye West has dropped off the 2022 Coachella lineup, sources tell TMZ and Variety. The festival is set to return for its first edition since 2019 at Indio’s Empire Polo Club on April 15-17 and April 22-24, and Kanye (or “Ye,” as he’s billed) had been scheduled to headline Sunday April 17 and 24.
A reason for the change is not currently known, but it comes after Kanye was barred from performing at the 2022 Grammys, which happened on Sunday night (4/3). Kanye’s representative pointed to a report in The Blast which cited Kanye’s “concerning online behavior” as reason for his removal from the show, telling Variety “This is confirmed.” Kanye wound up winning two Grammys, Best Melodic Rap Performance for “Hurricane” ft. The Weeknd and Lil Baby, and Best Rap Song for “Jail” ft. Jay-Z.
After news of Kanye’s barring from the Grammys broke out, reports surfaced that he’d told his ex-wife Kim Kardashian he was “going away to get help.” His Head of Media and Partnerships, Jason Lee, released a statement to Yahoo calling the reports “simply untrue.” “Ye monitors all headlines pertaining to him and his family daily,” the statement reads. “Most all are being fed to media by ‘sources close to the Kardashians,’ which have been creating a false narrative that not only is untrue but further compromises his goal of creating a healthy environment for the beautiful children he shares with Kim. He’s been focused on taking care of himself, being a present and loving father and a creative genius well before all the false headlines we’ve seen as recent. If you don’t hear it from his mouth, read it from his social media, or get it from a press release he approved it’s simply false.”
Kanye was also suspended from Instagram for 24 hours in March over his posts about Kim, Pete Davidson, David Sirius, and Trevor Noah, which violated the platform’s policies on hate speech, harassment and bullying.
Back in February, Kanye had threatened to pull out of Coachella if Billie Eilish didn’t apologize to Travis Scott, who Kanye claimed she dissed. “Come on Billie we love you please apologize to Trav and to the families of the people who lost their lives,” he wrote in the caption of an Instagram post that’s since been deleted. “No one intended this to happen Trav didn’t have any idea of what was happening when he was on stage and was very hurt by what happened and yes Trav will be with me at Coachella but now I need Billie to apologize before I perform.” Billie, who had paused her Atlanta show to make sure an attendee was okay months after the Astroworld Festival tragedy, emphasized that she hadn’t been criticizing Scott, writing in the comments that she “literally never said a thing about Travis. was just helping a fan.”
Kanye and Billie were added as Coachella headliners after scheduled 2020 headliners Rage Against the Machine, Travis Scott, and Frank Ocean all dropped off, or were pulled from the lineup. Harry Styles was then added to top Friday’s bill.
At this time there have been no official statements from the festival or Kanye. Stay tuned.
