The Weeknd and Swedish House Mafia Replace Kanye West at Coachella

UPDATE (4/6): The Weeknd is headed to Coachella. The pop star shared a new poster for the upcoming festival showing that he and Swedish House Mafia will replace Kanye West as the headliner for the third night. While Swedish House Mafia were already slated to perform at this year’s fest, the addition of the Weeknd is new.

It’s unclear exactly how the co-headlining performance will pan out, though the two artists have collaborated on a handful of tracks recently, including two songs on the Weeknd’s LP Dawn FM, and the single, “Moth to a Flame.”

Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, and Kanye West are set to headline this year’s Coachella festival, taking place at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, California on the weekends of April 15-17 and April 22-24.Other artists on the lineup include Daniel Caeser, Phoebe Bridgers, Big Sean, Lil Baby, Grupo Firme, Louis the Child, Baby Keem, Flume, Megan Thee Stallion, Disclosure, 21 Savage, Danny Elfman, Stromae, Giveon, Anitta, Brockhampton, Doja Cat, Joji, Jamie xx, Run the Jewels, Karol G, Maggie Rogers, Ari Lennox, Banda MS, and many more.

Last week, Rolling Stone confirmed Eilish was a headliner, with Styles also confirmed earlier on Wednesday. The previously announced Swedish House Mafia will also perform.

Noticeably absent from the 2022 lineup are a pair of artists that were previously announced as headliners when the 2020 Coachella was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic: Travis Scott and Rage Against the Machine, both of whom had their headlining sets bumped to the also-postponed 2021 fest. While Scott’s headlining set was nixed due to the continued aftermath of the Astroworld tragedy, it’s unclear why Rage Against the Machine — whose rescheduled 2022 reunion tour was built around the Coachella weekends — is no longer playing the fest. (Frank Ocean, the other 2020 headliner, has pushed his Coachella performance to 2023.)

In October, Coachella reversed its course on Covid-19 vaccination policies, announced it will no longer require full vaccination to attend their respective 2022 events. Festivalgoers may now present either a negative Covid-19 test taken within 72 hours of their events or provide vaccination proof. The change contradicted the initial full vaccination policy mandate from AEG, owners of Coachella promoter Goldenvoice.

From Rolling Stone US.