With a few days left for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, a new change was announced on 6 April 2022, after rapper Ye, earlier known as Kanye West, backed out. The spot is now taken up by EDM group Swedish House Mafia and R&B singer The Weeknd.
The two will perform on 17 and 24 April at the desert festival that will be held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. It will run through two weekends — 15 to 17 April and 22 to 24 April.
More on Swedish House Mafia and The Weeknd performing at Coachella 2022
The announcement
Taking to Twitter, the event’s official handle shared the dates of the performances. Swedish House Mafia and The weeknd are listed as the top performers for Sunday night. Other main performers for those days include Doja Cat, Joji, Jamie xx, Run the Jewels, Karol G, Maggie Rogers, Ari Lennox and Banda MS.
The announcement came after Ye backed out of North America’s largest music festival on 4 April. He was declared as a headline performer way back in January. At the time, Swedish House Mafia was also listed as a Coachella performer, but their performance dates had not been fixed.
The Party & The After Party pic.twitter.com/8gT2bF3x5j
— Coachella (@coachella) April 6, 2022
Now the trio will be seen performing with their “Moth To a Flame” partner on the grand stage. The Weeknd had already headlined the event once in 2018. Meanwhile, Swedish House Mafia as well as the Canadian singer had performed at the event in 2012.
According to a report by Variety, Paul Tollett, president/CEO of Coachella promoter Goldenvoice, said, “I’m so looking forward to this moment with Swedish House Mafia and The Weeknd finishing out the Sunday night slot this year.”
Harry Styles and Billie Eilish are listed as the star performers on 15 & 22 April and 16 & 23 April, respectively.
Ye backing out of performances
According to Variety, such a scenario was probably expected when Swedish House Mafia was mentioned in the lineup with no particular date. However, there has been no official statement from the star rapper regarding his decision.
This is not the first time Ye has stepped away from Coachella. In 2020, although he had backed out of his headline performance, the show got postponed due to the pandemic. In 2022, Ye did not attend the Grammy Awards despite winning two awards, as his performance was cancelled.
Others speculated to replace Ye
There were speculations about other stars taking up Ye’s position at the festival. This included names like Travis Scott, Justin Bieber, Silk Sonic (featuring Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak) and Tyler, the Creator.
(Main and feature image: Courtesy Swedish House Mafia/ Instagram; The Weeknd/ @theweeknd/ Instagram)
This story first appeared on Lifestyle Asia India