Music

The Weeknd Will Join Swedish House Mafia as Coachella Co-Headliners to Replace Kanye

After Kanye West dropped out of Coachella two weeks ahead of the festival, organizers have confirmed The Weeknd and Swedish House Mafia will replace him.

Swedish House Mafia and the Weeknd in a press photo by Luciano Picazo
Image via Luciano Picazo
Direct from Artist

After Kanye West dropped out of Coachella less than two weeks ahead of his scheduled performance, the festival has confirmed The Weeknd will join Swedish House Mafia to fill the headliner slot.

The Swedish three-piece and The Weeknd—who collaborated last year on “Moth to a Flame”—will close out the festival on Sunday. Swedish House Mafia were already set to play the festival, as the lineup announcement in January showed, but they had no specific date listed for their performance. Some suggested, as Variety did, that their position on the poster was in case Ye decided to drop out.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Kanye had decided to pull out of the festival for undisclosed reasons. He has yet to publicly comment on the decision, but he had hyped his performance on Instagram earlier this year. The rapper has since gone silent on social media after being suspended for 24 hours on IG in mid-March for hate speech, harassment, and bullying following comments about Trevor Noah, Kim Kardashian, and Pete Davidson.

Reports that surfaced on Tuesday and Wednesday showed that The Weeknd was in consideration to headline, as were Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Silk Sonic, fresh off their Grammy win, were asked but Bruno Mars reportedly declined because they wouldn’t have enough time to put on a show to their liking.

The first leg of The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn Tour with Doja Cat is set to kick off in July, and run until September. In the meantime, he’s been busy working on his six-episode HBO series The Idol, which he co-created and will star in.

Related Stories

Kanye West performing at MTV VMAs 2015
music

Coachella Reportedly Has List of Major Acts That Could Replace Kanye West

Coachella has a list of major acts they'd like to see replace Kanye West as headliner after the 'Donda' artist dropped out of the festival, TMZ reports.

tara mahadevan1491 days ago
The Weeknd is pictured in a new video from his latest album
music

The Weeknd Shares New Video for "Out of Time" Featuring Hoyeon and Jim Carrey

“Out of Time” is the latest track from The Weeknd’s 'Dawn FM' to receive a video. In January, “Gasoline” and the “Take My Breath” remix got the video treatment.

Trace William Cowen1491 days ago
The Weeknd attends the Music in Action Awards Ceremony.
music

The Weeknd Suggests He May ‘Pull a Ye,’ Legally Change His Name to Just Abel

The Weeknd took to Twitter on Sunday and floated the idea that he might get rid of his last name, Tesfaye, and legally change it to just "Abel."

Jose Martinez1492 days ago

Stay ahead on Exclusives

Download the Complex App