Kanye West Plans to Tour Australia in 2022, But Had Melbourne Stadium Show Date Foiled by Football Match
Kanye West is aiming to tour Australia this year, according to a new report, but a clash with the Australian Football League (AFL) is said to have disrupted his plans for a concert at a stadium in Melbourne.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, West – now legally known as Ye – had planned to perform at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on March 21 as part of the tour.
However, an opening fixture between the St Kilda and Collingwood AFL teams is scheduled for March 18, with the gap between those dates not providing adequate time for West’s production crew to bump in for the show.
The newspaper reports that “two sources with knowledge of [West’s] plans for an Australian tour” said West’s tour promoters, TEG, approached the AFL, who own Marvel Stadium, asking them to move the match to another venue. The Herald points out the likely alternative venue would have been the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The AFL reportedly declined the request. The Herald’s sources claim the rapper will now perform at the venue before the AFL season starts, “most likely” the weekend beginning March 12.
The arena, in Melbourne’s Docklands area, has been named Marvel Stadium since 2018, after a negotiation between its operators and the Walt Disney Company. Taylor Swift performed at the venue in 2018 as part of her Australian tour, while U2 performed there the following year.
West last performed in Australia in 2014 as part of his ‘Yeezus’ tour. On that run, he performed at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena.
Yesterday (January 27), West announced he would release new album ‘DONDA 2’ next month, also revealing it was executive produced by Future. The album is slated to arrive on February 22.
