Kanye West Prepares For Very Possible Glastonbury Disaster

Kanye West is all set to take the stage for the Glastonbury music festival in the UK. BBC News prepares for his arrival.

“US rapper Kanye West will attempt to win over the Glastonbury festival when he performs later, following some controversy over his headline booking. The divisive and unpredictable star will top the bill on the Pyramid Stage.”

Last weekend, the Independent described the extent at which Glastonbury fans are against Kanye West.

“Yet as the fateful Glastonbury weekend draws ever nearer, this is beginning to look less and less like a joke, and increasingly as if Kanye is going to have to invest in several heavy-duty umbrellas and a raincoat. At last count the petition to remove Kanye from his headline slot, and replace him with a ‘deserving’ rock band, had 134,415 votes.”

Having Kanye West headline Glastonbury has become almost as controversial as having Madonna headlining a concert for the Vatican. In fact, things have become so bad that Emily Eavis, Glastonbury’s co-organizer, has received horrible death threats and other forms of abuse over the booking.

Kanye is well aware of how hated he is and used his recent negative experiences to give an inspiring speech to Los Angeles Trade School graduates. Billboard quoted part of the speech.

“It’s a tough world out there. You’re going to prepare yourself for politics, bad bosses, hating employees, and usually when you’re the absolute best, you get hated on the most. Even for me, as a successful musician, in order to make the transition it was really all but impossible. People always try to box you in to what they know you best for.”

Even if Kanye West is booed, he still has the fact he made the cover of Time Magazine recently to make him feel better. Time heralded West as a boundary breaker. They noted that West would be the first person in the world to tell you he belongs on the list, and his belief in himself is part of his appeal. Of course, there are many people who disagree with that notion.

Kanye West is using his appearance at Glastonbury to promote his upcoming album, Swish, which is being proceeded by two singles that haven’t quite burned up the charts: “Only One” and “All Day.” The former was a collaboration with Paul McCartney that stormed up iTunes when first released, but dropped off the charts in a short period of time. Let’s hope that Kanye West can convince the Glastonbury audience that he is still relevant.

[Photo by Stuart Wilson/Getty Images]