In January, it was reported that Kanye West had backed out of a headlining gig at Coachella. According to a TMZ report at the time, West and the music festival organizers reached an impasse after the 41-year-old’s request to perform on a non-traditional stage had been denied. West — whose most recent festival performance at Tyler The Creator’s Camp Flognaw was in a glass, rectangular box suspended in the air — felt that the festival’s decision was artistically limiting.
“These 40×60 stages are so archaic. It’s the same type of stage on which Shakespeare’s works were performed hundreds of years ago,” a source close to West commented at the time.
A few months later in late March, however, we learned that Kanye’s Coachella performance was back on. While the show wouldn’t take place in a dome, as was rumored to be West’s original intention, it would still be unconventional. The “Jesus Walks” rapper announced that he would be staging a special edition of “Sunday Service” — the weekly event West inaugurated in January in which he performs stripped-down, gospel-fied versions of his most popular songs with live musicians and a choir. Coachella co-founder Paul Tollett revealed that the performance would take place on a hill in the festival’s campground area called “The Mountain” and would begin at 9 a.m. on Easter Sunday morning.
On Friday, YouTube revealed how all those not lucky enough to be at the festival could watch West’s historic performance. Fans eager to experience West catch the spirit on Coachella’s festival grounds can tune into the live stream on Coachella’s YouTube channel or tune into the YouTube Music app at 9 a.m. PT.
