The Weeknd Threatens To Pull Out Of Coachella If He Doesn’t Get Kanye’s $8.5 Million Fee

April 7, 2022 by Monique Nicole in Music with 0 Comments

The Weeknd Threatens To Pull Out Of Coachella If He Doesn’t Get Kanye’s $8.5 Million Fee

As Coachella organizers scramble to find a new headliner to replace Kanye West, it looks like they are dealing with even more drama behind the scenes!

According to reports, Coachella organizers announced Wednesday (Apr.7) that The Weeknd, 32, and house music legends Swedish House Mafia will be taking over the Chicago rapper’s slot. However, sources claim that before things were made official, negotiations hit a bump when festival owner Phil Anschutz wanted to pay The Weeknd a lesser amount than the $8.5 million Kanye West, 44, was set to receive as a headliner. The source said,

“The Weeknd came in at short notice to take Kanye’s top spot. But Phil Anschutz [who owns the Coachella Festival through AEG Live] wanted to hold on to Kanye’s money and pay The Weeknd far less, just a few million. The festival would pocket the rest.”

The Weeknd

The source continued,

“Even after Coachella announced the new lineup on Wednesday, a deal wasn’t in place for The Weeknd, who threatened to pull out at an hour’s notice if he didn’t get the same deal as Kanye….Finally, on Wednesday — faced with the prospect of a second headline act pulling out of Coachella at the last minute — Anschutz’s company caved and agreed to pay The Weeknd the same money.”

As previously reported, it was announced earlier this week that Kanye West made the decision to drop out of the highly anticipated Coachella music festival–less than two weeks before showtime! The 2-weekend-long music festival is set to kick off next week on April 15th in Indio, CA. Initially, Kanye West was on the ticket to perform on April 17th and again on the 24th.

It’s currently unclear why Kanye decided to pull out from the festival. However, last month a petition was created by Change.org that called for Coachella to remove Kanye from their lineup due to his verbal online attacks against his ex-wife Kim Kardashian, 41, and her 28-year-old boyfriend Pete Davidson.