Kanye West cancels Forum show at last minute
Just days after pledging allegiance to President-elect Donald Trump — and hours after cutting short a concert in Sacramento — Kanye West has called off his L.A. date tonight at The Forum.
The Sunday concert was canceled about three hours before showtime. No statement from West’s label or the tour’s promoter, Live Nation, was immediately available.
The Forum sent out a tweet Sunday about 5 p.m. noting that the show had been axed. Refunds, the venue’s announcement said, would be available at the point of purchase.
The cancellation comes after the always outgoing, occasionally controversial artist has had a share of outbursts at recent concerts. The freewheeling speeches have touched on politics, race and even his peers Beyoncé and Jay Z.
West admitted onstage last week in San Jose that he didn’t vote in this year’s election. Almost all of his musician peers, including Jay Z, Chance the Rapper and Beyoncé, turned out at rallies for Hillary Clinton.
But West escalated his controversial views by saying that he personally supported Donald Trump. To boos from the startled crowd, West said, “I told y’all I didn’t vote, right? But if I would’ve voted, I would’ve voted on Trump.”
West argued that he appreciated Trump’s lack of a social media filter.
“There’s nonpolitical methods to speaking that I like, that I feel were very futuristic. And that style, and that method of communication, has proven that it can beat a politically correct way of communication. And I [agree] with that,” West said. “I actually think that his approach was absolutely genius. Because it … worked!”
Last night in Sacramento, West cut short his concert after about three songs. He singled out Beyoncé, claiming the artist said she wouldn’t perform at a recent awards show if her video did not take top honors.
West’s Saint Pablo Tour is slated to resume Tuesday night in Fresno.
Follow me on Twitter: @toddmartens
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