Drake has postponed his remaining Australia and New Zealand tour dates over a “scheduling conflict” – find out more below.
The Canadian rapper, who made his return to Australia and New Zealand this month for his first tour in eight years, has pushed back his four remaining shows in Brisbane, Sydney and Auckland due to a clash in his schedule.
Drake was due to perform in Brisbane on March 4, Sydney on 7 and a pair of shows in Auckland, New Zealand on March 15 and 16. According to a statement from Drake’s rep to Rolling Stone AU/NZ, the surprise delays come due to a “scheduling conflict”.
Drakes’ rep added that the four shows will be rescheduled, and additional shows are being planned: “We are actively working on rescheduling these dates along with adding some additional shows.”
The rescheduled dates have yet to be confirmed and will be shared with ticket-holders “as soon as possible”. Meanwhile, all tickets that have been purchased to the sold-out shows will be honoured for the rescheduled dates but refund options will be made available for those who prefer.
The 14-date jaunt of Australia and New Zealand kicked off February 9 in Melbourne and saw him perform 10 dates before the “scheduling conflict” came into effect. During the tour, Drake made headlines for gifting select fans generous sums of money. One instance saw the rapper ask his team to give a 20-weeks pregnant lady out of the pit at a Sydney show, “give her like $30,000” and upgrade her to VIP.
Since then, fans have taken to bringing signs asking Drake for money, leading to a viral photo many are calling “dystopian”, that sees the rapper standing before a sea of requests for cash.
It’s not stopped him from opening his pockets to fans, though. During another show in Sydney last week, he scouted out a fan with a sign reading: “Rock-paper-scissors to buy my dad a birthday car.”
“I like this sign right here,” Drake said upon noticing it. “You ready? This my game, boy.” Drake ended up beating the fan in round one, but gave him another chance, telling him: “I’ll give you one more. Think about it. 1, 2, 3.” After a stalemate in the next two rounds, Drake ended up winning again in round four, but hooked the fan up with some money anyway. “I’m still gonna give you $20,000 so you can buy your dad a car,” he said.
In other news, Drake was recently announced as this year’s Wireless Festival headliner, which will see him take over the prime spot at all three nights of the annual London music bash. The event will return to London’s Finsbury Park from July 11 to 13 and to mark the occasion, Drake will become the first artist to headline a festival for three nights with three different setlists.
The shows will be the rapper’s first UK performances in six years, and he will be joined across the weekend by artists including Burna Boy, PartyNextDoor, Summer Walker and Vybz Kartel. Tickets for the event are on sale here.
Drake also released his collaborative album ‘$ome $exy $ongs 4 U’ with PartyNextDoor on Valentine’s Day (February 14), a collection of sultry R&B-infused songs that sees the rapper address his feud with Kendrick Lamar and tensions with Future, Metro Boomin and Rick Ross.
Kendrick, meanwhile, headlined the Super Bowl Halftime Show on February 10, where he took several shots at Drake — even poking fun at him for suing Universal Music Group for promoting ‘Not Like Us’. “I want to play their favourite song but you know they love to sue,” he quipped before playing the song for one second. He would eventually play the song in full later in the set.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that Drake had dropped “key allegations” in his case against his label Universal Music Group over the release of Kendrick Lamar’s diss track aimed at him, ‘Not Like Us’.
The post Drake postpones remaining Australia and New Zealand tour dates over “scheduling conflict” appeared first on NME.