What Will Wireless Do Now?

I take a look at some options

Should Wireless Festival have booked Ye (FKA Kanye West)? Probably not. Even if you accept his most recent apology to both “the Jews” and the black community for his bizarre flirtations with far-right ideology, which he attributes solely to having bipolar. Many won’t and arguably with good reason. Others will know the controversies but not the apologies and so it was always going to be a gamble. I mean in regards to anti-semitism alone, this wasn’t just the made up Kneecap type. He put out swastika T-Shirts, he’s had a number of anti-semitic social media rants, denied the holocaust on the Alex Jones show and called a tune ‘Heil Hitler’ for f**k’s sake.

So it’s unsurprising that this would eventually come back to bite him, and now the Wireless Festival. Two big sponsors have already left and more may follow, which is huge for such a big corporate festival. The press and public backlash has been severe and there’s calls to deny him a visa. This puts Wireless in a very difficult position. They can bow to the pressure and drop him from the line up, but this leaves them three headliners down.

It’s very last minute to be doing that as artists his size generally book up their tours a year in advance. Of course it might still be easier to do now rather than gamble with his visa being revoked. By then they will be incredibly lucky to get any replacements at all. They could simply upgrade their second line, which at Wireless Festival are often potential headliners anyway. But three nights is pushing it.

Perhaps they can get another artist to headline the full three nights? But who? Drake did the same last year and Tyler The Creator already has two nights lined up at All Points East. Kendrick Lamar perhaps? Usually both the artist and festival would want to have something to tie into the show such as a new album and there’s nothing planned for him that we know of. Plus he did a stadium tour with SZA just last year so it’s unlikely (for either of them).

J Cole could pull it off. Especially if The Fall Off really is planned to be his last album. Three nights as a series of farewell shows would be a winner.

I mean why book Ye in the first place right? It’s very hard to find headliners that suit in this day and age, so when you’re having to recycle the same artists every few years you are often at a disadvantage when it comes to negotiating a decent price and you’re at the mercy of release plans, touring schedules and the general unpredictability of an artist. It can lead to panic when your options start to disappear and so I bet when they saw the chance of 3 headliners in one, they ignored the misgivings they might have had.

They also looked over the fact that last time he played the festival in 2014, he got booed after a 20 minute rant and a lot of the crowd left. A similar thing happened at The Big Chill in 2011, which was probably the first time we heard him compare himself to Hitler. Glastonbury was a relatively rant free affair as far as I remember, but it has to be up there with one of the worst headliner sets that the festival has ever had. I know many disagree, but Ye’s hardcore stans will pretty much forgive him anything at all.

So who else are we looking at for headliners if Ye does fall through? Many of these might already be booked for the festival and so they’d be foolish to release the rest of the line up until the current mess is sorted out.

Personally the one artist that would get me there is Doechii, but I’d expect her to be second line down rather than top billing. Plus with cancelling her last tour she could be seen as being unreliable by bookers and ticket buyers alike. That said Lil Uzi Vert has a history of cancelling and still seems to get booked. He hasn’t actually played since 2022 so he might be a good option. Lil Baby isn’t though. He cancelled all his UK shows last year and there’s rumours that he’s retired for good.

Nicki Minaj played just two years ago in 2024, but then again there was only a two year gap the last time she played previously, and there is a new album coming. Cardi B also played 4 years ago. She’s still touring her last album with no UK dates showing, so she could be a good bet to be there.

A$AP Rocky is another artist who was there 4 years ago and he just dropped his first album in 8 years. I’d say he’d be definite if he didn’t already have a UK tour booked in for August and September. The Weeknd and Playboi Carti are around just before that so they’ll be out too. Gunna is another act who already has shows in March, although he is coming back in the summer for Reading & Leeds. This only makes it more unlikely that he’ll be at Wireless though, unless it’s as a secret guest.

There’s rumours that Rihanna is looking to tour here again for the first time in a decade which could be a huge coup for Wireless if they can get her in. Plus with the 10 year anniversary of Anti it’s enough of an extra hook.

Would they go for some older rappers perhaps? Snoop Dogg is due to drop an album this year but as much of a cultural icon as he’s become, I’m not certain he would still land a headline slot there. Is Eminem completely out of the question? I think that’s a long shot personally. I doubt 50 Cent will come back so quickly after his stadium tour last year and Lil Wayne’s visa issues make him an unlikely candidate. Ye’s old pal Jay Z already has three nights at Yankee Stadium on those same three dates so I guess he’s out too.

How about some UK artists? Dave and Skepta are both playing Reading & Leeds so the chances are slim. Central Cee popped up with Drake last year but hasn’t had his own set since 2021, unless you count the random Birmingham episode the following year. He’s also touring his Can’t Rush Greatness album still so he’s definitely in the running to reappear. J Hus was there in 2024 so I doubt he’ll return just yet. Stormzy maybe? That would be great and he’s not been there since 2018. He’s working on a new album though so I think he’d want to wait until that’s due to be released at the very least.

Melvin Benn who is the MD of Festival Republic has just released a statement saying, "Forgiveness and giving people a second chance are becoming a lost virtue in this ever-increasing divisive world." Either way I really hope this whole episode resolves and doesn't signal the end of Wireless. It’s hard enough for kids these days to get line ups like the ones they offer and I’m not sure there would be a decent replacement if they folded. Of course a few Welsh artists on the line up would be nice. We’ve got plenty here to choose from.