Kanye West has said he won’t perform at the Coachella festival unless fellow headliner Billie Eilish apologises to rapper Travis Scott, after she appeared to reference the fatal disaster at Scott’s Astroworld festival during a recent show.
Performing in Atlanta last week, Eilish stopped proceedings when she noticed a fan struggling to breathe. After the fan received medical attention, she resumed the show and told the crowd: “I wait for people to be OK until I keep going.”
On Instagram, West (now legally known as Ye) shared screenshots of a news report about Eilish “dissing” Scott, captioned: “Come on Billie we love you please apologise to Trav and to the families of the people who lost their lives no one intended this to happen.
“Trav didn’t have any idea of what was happening when he was on stage and was very hurt by what happened and yes Trav will be with me at Coachella but now I need Billie to apologise before I perform.”
Eilish responded in the comments of West’s post: “Literally never said a thing about Travis. Was just helping a fan.”
Eilish’s comment in Atlanta was widely interpreted as a reference to the tragedy at Scott’s Astroworld festival in Houston in November 2021. Ten people died as a result of accidental compressive asphyxiation in a crowd crush, with approximately 300 people injured. The youngest victim was nine-year-old boy Ezra Blount.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Blount’s grandparents described West’s remarks as “hurtful” and “idiotic”.
Scott continued to perform while first responders were attending to what was described as a mass casualty event, and completed his performance. Analysis by the Washington Post showed that crowd members’ attempts to sound the alarm were drowned out by Scott’s music.
Scott has denied knowing that fans were hurt during his performance, and subsequently denied responsibility for the deaths in court documents after more than 140 lawsuits alleging negligence were filed, including a mass litigation suit brought by more than 1,500 concertgoers.
In December, a medical examiner found that the 10 deaths were accidental. Scott and event organisers remain a focus of a criminal investigation. Nobody has yet been charged.
The Coachella festival is due to take place in California across two weekends in April, with Harry Styles as its third headliner.
• This article was amended on 11 February 2022. A medical examiner found that the 10 Astroworld deaths were accidental, not a judge as previously stated.
