Just days into 2019, news of Kanye West‘s sudden exit from the 2019 Coachella line-up hit the internet. At the time, TMZ quoted a source who put it down to the stage being “artistically limiting”. Well, that was pretty much correct because now the word is that West pulled out because Coachella co-founder Paul Tollett wouldn’t construct a giant dome for him.
[jwplayer BGoOrYtt]
Very Kanye, very, very Kanye.
A source told Billboard that Tollett and senior executives at Goldenvoice – the Californian festival’s parent company – received the request, via phone, two days before they were set to announce West on the line-up. Said executives explained to the artist that the dome would be impossible to build in four months and would mean a whole rearrangement of the festival site and the removal of a bunch of port-a-loos.
West, who had been vacationing at the time, reportedly became irritated by the talk of port-a-loos, told the Goldenvoice folks to deal with it, and hung up the phone.
On the very same day, Billboard reports Tollett and Goldenvoice got in touch with Scooter Braun and just like that, Ariana Grande replaced West. The ‘Thank U, Next’ singer was officially announced as a headliner less than a day later, joining Childish Gambino and Tame Impala.
Well then.
If you’re interested, the giant dome was supposed to be big enough to fit 125,000 punters in it. It would have been a full-on immersive video experience with West performing in the middle so everyone could see him.
Again, very Kanye.
