After onstage meltdown, Kanye cancels tour
Kanye West is “exhausted” and has pulled the plug on his entire tour, suddenly leaving his New York fans scrambling for something to do on New Year’s Eve.
Cancellation of the Saint Pablo Tour came less than 48 hours after his onstage meltdown that left fans fuming in California following an abbreviated half-hour-long show.
“The remaining dates on the Saint Pablo Tour have been cancelled,” according to Live Nation Entertainment. “Tickets will be fully refunded at point of purchase.”
StubHub also announced Monday that anyone who purchased West tickets through its site will be fully reimbursed, no matter how much over face value they paid.
Those canceled dates include Dec. 30 and 31 gigs at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and a Dec. 16 show at Newark’s Prudential Center.
An entertainment industry expert predicted that Barclays will find something to fill those dates, even if it’s not a megastar like West.
“Those are prime dates — I mean that’s New Year’s Eve in New York City,” said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of concert-industry journal Pollstar. “Those are attractive dates. I’m sure someone is going to grab them.”
Kevin Bencosme, a 23-year-old Kanye fan from The Bronx with tickets for the Dec. 31 date, said he’s bummed about missing the show — but more worried for West’s well-being.
“I just hope he is all right, his mom died nine years ago and he hasn’t been himself (since),” Bencosme said outside Barclays Center. “I hope someone talks some sense into him.”
Other now-canceled shows in the Northeast include Albany’s Times Union Center (Dec. 11), Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center (Dec. 13 and 15), Washington, DC’s Verizon Center (Dec. 27) and Boston’s TD Garden (Dec. 28).
The 39-year-old performer and supporting actor in the Kim Kardashian clan has been struggling to keep his cool in recent days.
He drew a cascade of boos in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday with a weird, after-the-fact endorsement of Donald Trump.
West was on the stage for 30 minutes in Sacramento late Saturday before going off on a nonsensical rant against fellow artists Beyoncé and Jay Z, as well as the state of the nation.
And then, hours before a gig scheduled for Sunday night at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., he backed out of that show too.
“Tours have been cancelled before for any number of physical (health or injury) reasons — but not for a melt down like this,” Bongiovanni said.
A source close to West claimed he’s just too tired to perform — and the decision has nothing to do with mental health struggles.
“It’s nothing like that,” the source told People magazine. “He’s just exhausted. He’s been working around the clock on fashion design, both on his own line and the Adidas line. He’s a notorious workaholic, so balancing both that work — which is extremely important to him — and the rigors of the tour every night, it really wore him out.”
At about the same time West pulled the plug on Inglewood Sunday night, he haphazardly flooded his Instagram with 99 fuzzy pictures of clothing articles that all appear to tied to French fashion house Maison Margiela.
West suddenly left the Meadows Music Festival in Queens on Oct. 2 when he learned that his wife, Kim Kardashian, had been violently robbed in Paris.
Kardashian, a prolific force on social media with 49.1 million Twitter followers, hasn’t tweeted since that scary incident.
“I’m sure Kim and his family played a part in the decision (to cancel the tour),” the West source said. “He’s incredibly devoted to his family.”
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