Swedish House Mafia & The Weeknd To Replace Kanye (Ye) West At Coachella

House music supergroup Swedish House Mafia and R&B star The Weeknd will take Kanye (Ye) West’s headlining slot at Coachella Music & Arts Festival. The announcement comes after Ye pulled out of the festival claiming he wants to stay out of the public eye and get help following his revoked Grammy performance, Instagram suspension, and ongoing feud with Pete Davidson.

Slated for the next two weekends on April 15th-17th and 22nd-24th at Indio, CA’s Empire Polo Club, Coachella will now boast headlining sets from Harry Styles on each weekend’s Friday, Billie Eilish on Saturday, and now Swedish House Mafia and The Weeknd on Sunday. The two artists recently released the new single, “Moth To The Flame” earlier this year, so it’s expected that the track will be performed at the festival.

It makes sense that Swedish House Mafia would take Ye’s place since the group already appeared on the bottom of the festival’s original lineup in January billed as “Returning to the Desert.” A statement from Goldenvoice hinted that Swedish House Mafia was originally booked as a special guest but also as a headlining backup in the occurrence that Ye would pull out of the festival. Of course, this was only because Ye backed out of his performance for Coachella’s first weekend in 2019, leaving festival organizers to anticipate it happening again.

Of course, swapping in The Weeknd for Ye wasn’t all that easy. Coachella organizers allegedly tried to pay The Weeknd far less than the promised $8 million set aside for Ye. The ploy led to fraught negotiations between Goldenvoice and the singer’s management, with finally the festival agreeing to pay The Weeknd the original $8 million for the headlining slot after he threatened to backout himself an hour before the new announcement would be made live.

After all the postponements, cancellations, lineup changes, and lawsuits surrounding Coachella, let’s hope this is the last bit of drama-related news for the festival. Tickets are currently sold out for both weekends, but you can sign up for the waitlist on the festival’s website.