The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is set to return to the Southern California desert for two consecutive April weekends after a two-year COVID break, but some fans would prefer it if Kanye West – who has played Coachella five times and in 2011 became the first rapper to close the festival – not close this year’s edition. In light of the artist, currently known as Ye’s erratic and problematic behavior, more than 30,000 people have signed a petition on Change.org urging Coachella organizers to pull West from the 2022 festival’s Sunday headline space.
“We’ve seen Kanye harass, manipulate and hurt Kim [Kardashian]Pete [Davidson]and others for over a year now. Nobody seems to want to stand up to him, and he also puts those who do under fire, “reads the statement on the petition. “Most recently, he has threatened others with actual bodily harm. It is ridiculous that he is free to do this. Coachella (along with other brand names still working with him) should be ashamed and should not give him more of a platform. Feel free to write and share! “
Launched on March 17 by a user with the alias Kim Pete, the grassroots sequel follows the release of West’s animated “Eazy” music video, which shockingly depicts West kidnapping, beheading and burial Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson (who is currently dating West’s estranged wife, Kim Kardashian). Kardashian, who was awarded singles status by a judge on March 2, has been the target of West’s increasingly stalker-like behavior and online bullying in recent weeks, with West repeatedly taking to Instagram either to accuse Kardashian of being an unsuitable mother to their four children or to make large “romantic” movements in the hope of reconciling. (For example, on Valentine’s Day, he posted a picture of a truckload of roses he had sent to her home.) Kardashian issued a statement in February blasting West for his “harmful” “constant attacks,” saying they ” causing further pain “. ”To their family.
West has also used social media to viciously attack Davidson, referring to the comedian with the unflattering nickname “Happened” and even posted an ugly, untrue rumor that Davidson spurred Mac Miller – who like Davidson once dated pop star Ariana Grande – to suicide. Davidson eventually confronted West, writing in a leaked text exchange: “I have decided that I will not let you treat us like that anymore and I am done keeping quiet.”
West was recently suspended from Instagram for 24 hours after responding to Trevor Noahs Daily show monologue about West’s “horrific” treatment of Kardashian. West targeted the TV host with a racial slander in a since-deleted Instagram post; a spokesman for Meta, Instagram’s parent company, stated that West had violated Meta’s policies regarding hate speech, harassment and bullying. Since then, West’s scheduled appearance at the 2022 Grammy Awards ceremony, which will be held by Noah on April 3, has been canceled due to his “regarding online behavior.”
However, according to CNN, Noah, a longtime vocal fan of West’s music, had nothing to do with the Recording Academy’s decision. Noah has defended the controversial rapper, if Donda has been nominated for Album of the Year along with four other Grammys. Noah commented on West’s original inflammatory Instagram post with “it breaks my heart to see you like this” and stressed that West’s music had been an “indelible” part of his life; Sunday when the news came that West was being pulled from the Grammy show, Noah tweeted“I said Adviser Kanye did not cancel Kanye.”
Still, many concerned citizens who add their signatures to Kim Pete’s Change.org petition seem to fully agree with the idea of West’s cancellation. In the “Reasons to sign” section of the petition’s landing page, one person wrote: “The amount of abuse / veiled threats, etc. should not be celebrated / tolerated.” Another argued: “Kanye is a narcissistic selfish bully who thinks his money and fame give him a free pass to abuse, threaten, shame and slander others. Why he has been allowed to get away with this horrible behavior for so long is a joke. ” And another wrote: “Trevor Noah said it best: ‘The most powerful, richest woman in America can not even stop this man from harassing her.’ That says a lot about the amount of fame he has, and how it leads to zero accountability. “
Right now, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival will take place in Indio, California, from the 15th-17th. April and the 22nd-24th. April, where Harry Styles has the main name both Fridays, Billie Eilish has the main name on Saturdays, and Kanye West still plays on Sundays. Both Eilish and West performed at the most recent Coachella Festival in 2019. West has previously threatened to withdraw from this year’s Coachella after he perceived remarks that Eilish made about audience safety during one of her own concerts while she helped a fan in distress be insults directed at his friend Travis Scott.
Scott was originally set to play Coachella 2022, but was dropped from the bill following the crowd-surge tragedy at his own Astroworld festival last November, which killed 10 concertgoers and injured hundreds. (A signature collection from Change.org calling for Scott’s removal from Coachella collected more than 70,000 signatures.) Via social media, West issued an ultimatum in which he demanded that Eilish “apologize” [to Scott] before I perform, “but Eilish simply commented,” Who literally never said anything about Travis, “and their feud died quickly.
Representatives of Goldenvoice / AEG, the promoter of Coachella, did not respond to Yahoo Entertainment’s request for comment regarding Kim Pete’s petition or the possibility of West’s removal from the Coachella 2022 series.
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