By Cate Casparius ’19
The remaining 21 performances of Kanye West’s Saint Pablo Tour were abruptly cancelled with an impersonal statement posted by Live Nation Entertainment Monday. Tickets are refundable.
Tess Jacobs ’20 bought tickets to the last stop of the tour on New Year’s Eve at the Barclays center. “I got to see Kanye at Meadows and although he was close to finishing he still cut his show short which was fine, but now this? It seems to be a selfish trend from Kanye and I definitely won’t try to go to another concert of his because it always seems to be a let down, honestly.”
Thursday night in San Jose, West shared his stance in the election during a performance. “I told y’all I didn’t vote, right? But if I would’ve voted, I would’ve voted on Trump,” he said. He also touched on racism and the Black Lives Matter movement and even admitted he may run for candidacy in 2020.
Then West revisited his political opinions after singing only three songs Saturday in Sacramento, California at his performance. He ranted more about Trump and his views receiving boos from the crowd. Kanye then cut his concert short dropping the mic and walked off the stage, leaving some fans furious and few in envy.
Casey Cohen ’19 was also supposed to attend one of West’s concerts. “He canceled the rest of his tour the day of the night I was supposed to go. Bad luck I guess.” Politically though, Cohen thinks Kanye had the right to voice his political views. “I think it’s fine for Kanye to voice his political views at his concert, but at least do it at the end. He shouldn’t have just played three songs and walked off with no explanation. Unbelievable that the crowd was cheering for him during his rant when they were really being robbed of $200+.”
What is unclear to the public though, is really why he cancelled the concert and if his sharing of his political views had anything to do with it. Kanye did mention that he was nervous for his safety because of his opinions, but did not cite his fears as being the reason for the cancellation of his tour.
Then Monday, West took a ‘911’ trip to the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles for exhaustion and stress and even stayed the night “for his own safety.” A paramedic who arrived at the scene labeled it as a “psychiatric emergency” and is heard asking for backup from the fire department.
Ella Jarvis ’18 was also supposed to attend one of Kanye’s performances but looked at the trip to the hospital in a better way than most of Kanye’s fans. “Regardless if it was health problems or not he cancelled [his tour] for a reason and if it is health related then I guess it’s good to be safe just in case. If the concert was causing him stress that may have been the best thing to do.”
Photo used under the Creative Commons license
