Coachella announces replacement headliners for Kanye West

Swedish House Mafia and The Weeknd will replace Kanye West as the Sunday headliners of Coachella, the festival has announced.

The rapper had been set to headline the music event in Southern California alongside Oscar winner Billie Eilish and Harry Styles.

However, the festival published a new line-up poster on Wednesday confirming the changes, which come weeks before the event.

Electronic music supergroup Swedish House Mafia – made up of Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso – had already been listed as performers at the event, although their position on the billing was not clear.

They are now listed alongside Canadian pop superstar The Weeknd, real name Abel Tesfaye, at the top of the Saturday line-up.

Coachella’s post was captioned, “The Party & The After Party”.

Responding to the news, The Weeknd simply tweeted, “cXOachella”.

West, 44, previously threatened to drop out of the slot if he did not receive an apology from Eilish on behalf of fellow rapper Travis Scott.

He alleged the singer, 20, made reference to the tragedy at Scott’s performance at the Astroworld music festival in 2021 during one of her shows, when she stopped the music to allow an audience member to be helped.

In clips of the show shared online, she can be heard saying: “I wait for people to be OK until I keep going.”

Ten people died as fans surged toward the stage during a performance by Scott at the two-day festival in Houston, Texas in November.

Eilish denied her remarks were in reference to Scott.

Coachella, which takes place in the Southern Californian desert, has experienced multiple delays and cancellations due to the pandemic.

West did not attend last Sunday’s Grammy Awards despite winning two prizes, after reports his live performance was pulled by organisers.