American rapper, Ye, has pulled out of his scheduled appearance at the Coachella festival, a source confirmed.
The reason for his cancelation is not clear, although a source revealed that he had not rehearsed or prepared for the appearance. Ye was scheduled to play the closing night of the two-weekend festival, which will run between April 15-17, 2022, and April 22-24, 2022.
Meanwhile, there are many other reasons why news of Ye pulling out of Coachella does not come as a shock. Ye had earlier threatened to quit Coachella after Billie Eilish made a comment, he perceived to be bashing Travis Scott- something Eilish denied. He asked Billie to apologize to Travis for taking a swipe at him, else, he pulls out of headlining Coachella. However, Billie didn’t see anything wrong with what she said and therefore didn’t apologize. It is worth mentioning that Ye and Scott are frequent collaborators and related by a former marriage with Kim Kardashian.
That notwithstanding, Ye’s unpredictable and combative behavior in recent months places a question mark over his appearance. He had been barred from a planned appearance at Sunday night’s Grammy Awards due to what was described as his “concerning online behavior”.
This is not the first time Ye is pulling out of Coachella. It can be recalled that he pulled out of a planned headlining appearance at the 2020 festival, which ultimately was postponed to this year due to the pandemic, days before it was announced.
Coachella was Prepared for the unforeseen?
Coachella’s first two nights will be headlined by Harry Styles and Billie Eilish. Due to Ye’s unpredicted behavior, the festival organizers essentially hedged its bets on Ye by billing EDM titans, Swedish House Mafia, in an unspecified spot on the lineup. The group was listed at the bottom of the official announcement poster, leaving open the option of the group replacing Ye as the headliner in the event he pulled out. Some people have suggested that with the festival just 11 days away, that seems a likely scenario.
Rumors had been circulating that Travis Scott would be joining Ye for the performance, but TMZ confirmed that he will not be appearing either. Scott has been keeping a low profile since about 10 people died in a rush toward the stage during his headlining performance at his Astroworld festival in Houston in October.
Meanwhile, The festival, which is already sold out, is scheduled to take place at its usual location of the Empire Polo Ground in Indio, Calif. Coachella is North America’s largest music festival and has already sold out its 125,000 per-day tickets. While the original headliners of this 21st installment of the festival were Travis Scott, Frank Ocean, and Rage Against the Machine, the festival has been postponed four times due to the pandemic.
Last year, Ocean moved his appearance to 2023, and Scott was removed from the bill in the wake of the Astroworld tragedy in November 2021, although sources disclosed that his agent fought to keep him on the bill.
Read also: Calls Being Made to Strip Will Smith off Oscar Title
