Did American rapper Travis Scott perform at Egypt's Giza Pyramids on July 28, 2023? No, that's not true. Scott himself attested to a statement issued by the organizing firm, announcing the cancellation of the concert on July 26, 2023, just two days before it kicked off. Scott tweeted on his verified Twitter account that his performance at the Pyramids, in which he had planned to release his Utopia album, "will happen," but that more time was needed to finalize logistics.
The claim that the concert took place appeared in a video (archived here), which was posted on TikTok the night the performance was slated to take place on July 28, 2023, under the title: "The first part of Travis Scott's concert at the Pyramids. Follow, explore and download the whole gig" ( Translation from Arabic to English by Lead Stories).
The 39-second video showed a clip of Scott's chart-topping song Sicko Mode in his album Astroworld, released in 2018. To the cheers of crowds of fans, it opened:
Sun is down freezin' cold. That's how we already know...
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Aug 1 11:05:08 2023 UTC)
A thorough search by Lead Stories turned up that the clip was taken from an old concert held in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 8, 2018, during the Austin City Limits Music Festival weekend, according to 809.Post, which carried the concert on its website, said it has since been dubbed as Scott's official performance video, with nearly 18 million views. The performance can also be viewed on YouTube here.
The organizing firm for the pyramids concert, Entertainment & Recreation Dubai Live Nation Middle East, said on July 26, 2023, that the cancellation was due to "complex production issues." It did not elaborate in its tweet, followed by a promising note by Scott himself, read by more than 6 million people. "Egypt at the pyramids will happen," he wrote. "But due to demand and detail logistics, they just need a bit a time to set lay on lands."
He promised his fans: "I will keep u posted on a date, which will be soon. Love you alllll."
Although the Live Nation statement was carried on the group's Twitter page and reported by several prominent news outlets, there was no mention of the cancellation on Live Nation's Website. "There are currently no Travis Scott events at this time," read a short note on Scott's concert timetable.
Calling off the event abruptly drew speculation that the reason was the Egyptian Musicals Syndicate revoking a permit that would have allowed Scott to hold his event at the Pyramids. The syndicate said on July 17, 2023, that the event's "license" was revoked on the grounds that "this type of concert...contradicts the cultural identity of the Egyptian people." It did not elaborate.
But Egypt Independent reported a day later, on July 18, 2023, that plans to hold the Pyramids concert drew controversy in the largely conservative North African Arab nation because of Scott's alleged "satanic believes," purportedly manifested in his on-stage performance. Subsequently, popular concern mounted over the safety of the audience and the Egyptian community.
The Source said despite the cancellation, Scott's fans gathered near the pyramids to celebrate the rapper's new album, UTOPIA, with videos of the gathering going viral on social media platforms, mainly Twitter.
THREW A PARTY AT THE PYRAMIDS pic.twitter.com/vtrZwMUted
-- TRAVIS SCOTT FAN PAGE (@RodeoTheAlbum) July 28, 2023
