Kanye West Can’t Perform At The Grammys, But He Can Still Attend — Will He?

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Even though Kanye West’s performance at the 2022 Grammy Awards was cancelled, the 44-year-old rapper will still be allowed to attend the show, because of the nominations he received for his album Donda, according to Variety. Kanye’s performance was announced to have been scrapped over “concerning online behavior” on March 19. Some believe the cancellation came in light of Ye making online attacks against The Daily Show host Trevor Noah, who will host the award show on April 3.

 

Kanye’s nominations almost entirely stem from his 2021 release Donda. He’s racked up nominations for Album of the Year, Best Rap Album, Best Rap Song (for “Jail”) and Best Melodic Rap Performance (for “Hurricane”). He’s also included in the nomination for Lil Nas X’s Montero for Album of the Year for his contribution. The sources told Variety that because of the nominations, the “Runaway” rapper will still be allowed to walk the red carpet and can attend both the Premiere Ceremony and main show. Despite Kanye’s online behavior being cited as the reason for his performance being scrapped, according to The Blast, an unready stage show may have also contributed to the cancellation, per Variety.

The My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy rapper has long had a difficult relationship with the Grammy Awards. He hasn’t attended the award show since 2015, citing Beyoncé’s loss of Album of the Year to Beck as one of the reasons, and he even flipped the bird towards the audience during his performance. While nothing is confirmed, there have been whispers that Yeezy may stage an event to compete with the Grammys the same night, Variety said.

After the news that Kanye’s performance wouldn’t be happening, fellow rapper The Game suggested that Kanye’s comments about Trevor Noah were the reason. His many outbursts against his estranged wife Kim Kardashian and her new boyfriend Pete Davidson (which led to him getting suspended from Instagram) as more possible reasons for the Grammys to pull the plug. Still, even The Daily Show comedian spoke out against the decision to pull the rapper from the show. “I said counsel Kanye not cancel Kanye,” he tweeted. 

In wake of his Grammy performance getting cancelled, a source close to Kim revealed to HollywoodLife exclusively that she had “mixed feelings” about the whole thing. “She doesn’t want to see Kanye’s career being altered negatively because she wants him to make a living as she knows that he is one of the best when he is on stage and behind the microphone. But she also believes that everyone including Kanye deserves consequences over their behavior,” the source said.