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After Kanye West dropped out of Coachella, organizers announced that The Weeknd and Swedish House Mafia would be taking over his slots- and drama quickly ensued behind the scenes. According to Page Six, Coachella organizers tried to pay The Weeknd less than Ye, and the singer demanded to receive the same $8.5 million paycheck, threatening to pull out “an hours notice.”
Ye dropped out of Coachella on April 4th, just two weeks before the first weekend. Of course, not all artists get paid the same at the festival, and Ye had the top-earning spot. A source told Page Six, “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.”
When The Weeknd caught wind of Ye’s contract, he was ready to be the second headliner to drop out of his demands weren’t met. “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,” the source explained.
Thankfully for The Weeknd, his threats worked and Anschutz’s company “caved” and agreed to pay him the same about of money.
As for why Kanye dropped out of Coachella? Three days before it was revealed he was dropping out, Page Six reported he was, “going away to get help,“ after his jarring activity online surrounding Kim Kardashian, Pete Davidson, Trevor Noah, and more. A source close to the Kardashians told the outlet “For the sake of the kids, Kanye has told Kim he’s not making any public appearances or inflammatory social media statements, and he will go away somewhere to get better.”