Kanye West’s presence at Coachella was missing this year but that isn’t much of a surprise. The rapper revealed through his media manager, Jason Lee, that he would be backing out of both of his slots at the festival. Fans were confused, as were the organizers of Coachella who said that were blindsided by the announcement.
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Coachella co-founder Paul Tollett recently spoke on Ye’s departure during an interview with the Los Angeles Times. Though it presented a significant predicament for Coachella as a whole, he explained that he’s “good with Kanye.” “I Zoomed with him a couple days prior, and I think it was a good decision for him,” he said.
It seems that The Weeknd and his management team leaped at the opportunity to fill in the empty headlining slot. Tollett said that The Weeknd and Sal Slaiby reached out to see what the terms were and what Tollett was looking for exactly.
“I said, ‘I actually don’t know yet. Right now I’m a little stunned with Kanye leaving. I’ve got to think what to do here,’” he said.
Ultimately, this led to The Weeknd and Swedish House Mafia headlining the festival at the last minute.
Elsewhere in the interview, Tollett also confirmed that Frank Ocean would be headlining the 2023 edition of the festival. Does that mean a new album is coming soon? We’ll see.