It’s one thing after another for Coachella organizers this year. For weeks, the popular multi-genre festival has been dealing with PR problems left and right. Their biggest issue thus far, has been embattled and controversial rapper Kanye West. West was originally announced as the headliner for Sunday, April 17th and 24th, and since the announcement, organizers have had the displeasure of dealing with his increasingly neurotic an erratic demands; while at the same time, dealing with the fallout of his outright harassment of ex-wife Kim Kardashian.
Thankfully this problem solved itself as the rapper dropped out of the festival earlier this week. This left another problem however; finding another headliner to replace him.
It was announced April 6th that The Weeknd and returning house legends Swedish House Mafia would take the stage together as Kanye’s replacement. This excited some attendees and drove others away. On top of the lukewarm social media reactions, Coachella hit another snag in the form of headliner negotiations that same day. Phil Anschutz, the owner of Coachella, wanted to pay The Weeknd less than the $8.5 million Kanye was set to receive. The exact number the original offer was is unknown, but as you can imagine, this did not go down well with The Weeknd.
The “Blinding Lights” singer threatened within the hour to pull out unless he received the same pay as promised to the previous headliner. Faced with yet another expensive PR disaster for a festival that has already taken so many hits in recent months, Anschutz’s team agreed to pay The Weeknd the money. This just goes to show, it pays to know your worth. Coachella makes it’s anticipated return to Indio, CA April 15-17th and 22-24th. Are you looking forward to the Swedish House Mafia x The Weeknd performance?
