Ye (Kanye West) Pulls Out Of Coachella 2022 Headlining Performances

Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, has pulled out of his planned headlining appearance at Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2022, per a report initially published by TMZ.

The controversial rapper was due to close out both Sundays of the two-weekend festival on April 17th and April 24th, respectively. Other headliners for the event include Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, and Swedish House Mafia. Coachella promoter Goldenvoice has not yet commented on West’s departure from the lineup or any potential replacements. View the full Coachella 2022 lineup here.

The cancellation follows a recent string of controversies surrounding West, his personal life, and his Coachella 2022 appearances. In addition to his highly public spat with his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, and her new flame, Pete Davidson—which prompted Coachella attendees to launch a petition to have him removed from the lineup—the rapper in February threatened to pull out of the shows if Billie Eilish did not apologize for a perceived “dis” toward embattled Astroworld rapper Travis Scott.

Scott, who was initially scheduled to perform at Coachella 2022, was dropped from the lineup in December 2021 following the deadly crowd surge at his Astroworld festival in Houston, TX, which claimed ten lives. When he made his ultimatum to Coachella over the Billie Eilish “dis,” Ye said that Travis Scott would join him during his performances at the festival.

Video of Eilish pausing a show for a fan in need had circulated in the wake of the Astroworld tragedy. In it, Eilish can be heard saying, “I wait for people to be OK before I keep going.”

As Ye responded in all capital letters at that time, a habit he later acknowledged and amended as his frequent posts on Instagram have continued. “Please apologize to Trav and to the families of the people who lost their lives. 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.”

As Eilish responded in the comment section of the since-deleted post, “Literally never said a thing about Travis. Was just helping a fan.”

Kanye West’s numerous appearances at the desert festival have been notably marred by controversy over the years. In 2019, he was initially on the shortlist to headline the festival but was removed from the lineup when organizers reportedly refused to build him a special dome stage in the center of the festival grounds. Coachella chose to move forward without him, announcing a lineup topped by Childish Gambino, Tame Impala, Ariana Grande, and more. Just before the event, however, Kanye and Coachella struck an agreement for the rapper/producer to host the first-ever public edition of his Sunday Service on the event’s final day.

In other Kanye drama news, West was reportedly disinvited from his planned performance at Sunday’s Grammy Awards in Las Vegas due to his “concerning online behavior.” Despite the fact that he was not in attendance, West picked up a pair of Grammy statues for Donda tracks “Hurricane” ft. The Weeknd and Lil Baby (Best Melodic Rap Performance) and “Jail” ft. Jay-Z (Best Rap Song). The wins moved Kanye West and Jay-Z into a tie for the most Grammy wins by a rapper at 24.

Ye’s various personal controversies have made their way into the outsize rollouts of his 2021 album, Donda, and its Stem Player-only sequel, Donda 2, which have included delays, late updates, and a string of stadium-sized listening parties with varying degrees of production value. A three-part documentary about West, jeen-yuhs, was also recently released on Netflix.

This story is developing.