Kanye West’s Sydney concert ‘wheelchair rant’: Here’s what really happened

ACCORDING to headlines splashed across the world, Kanye West angrily demanded that wheelchair-bound fans get out of their seats.

KANYE West attracted negative headlines worldwide over the weekend, with reports that he angrily demanded disabled fans get up and dance at the Friday night Sydney show of his current Yeezus tour.

They say you should never let the truth get in the way of a good story — and in this case, there’s not much truth to the tale.

So, worldwide tabloid media, Imma let you finish your Kanye hatin’, but I was at Friday’s show and here’s what REALLY happened:

Anyone who’s been to a large arena concert will know that, particularly for the fans seated far from the stage, it can be hard to really lose yourself in the show. Sometimes, it takes a well-timed demand from the artist that everyone get on their feet to really get everyone buzzing.

Fans loved West’s Sydney show — but it attracted negative headlines worldwide. Picture: Getty Images

That’s exactly what Kanye did, in his own typically bullish, slightly un-PC way. Having just performed one of his most ebullient hits, All Of The Lights, West was just about to launch into another feel-good anthem when he took a moment to tell the few remaining fans left not standing in the arena that they should join the fun.

Melissa Hoyer: My eight minutes with Kim Kardashian

It was a Friday night show, and most people in the arena — many no doubt buoyed by a few after-work drinks on the way to the show — were already dancing. Kanye had a message for those not yet swept up in the atmosphere: join the party.

There was one caveat to his demand, which he specified when pointing out two seated people in particular.

“There’s two people left that ain’t standing up,” he says. “Now if he’s in a wheelchair, then that’s fine. He in a wheelchair? OK.”

With that, he launched into another song, and the audience continued dancing. See the whole incident for yourself below:

It was such a minor moment in the show, I didn’t even think to mention it in my review of the concert the next morning.

And yet here we are three days later with sites worldwide slamming West’s ‘shocking rant’.

Introducing one of the best songs of the night, Clique, West gave a thank you to his fans for sticking by him despite all the lies written about him in the media. At the time, it would’ve been easy to laugh it off as a woe-is-me pronouncement from a rich superstar. In the wake of Wheelchairgate, one can’t help but feel like Yeezy has a point.

Originally published as Kanye West’s Sydney concert ‘wheelchair rant’: Here’s what really happened