Travis Scott returned to the stage at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards on May 15, the rapper’s first awards appearance since the Astroworld tragedy on Nov. 5, 2021, which left 10 concertgoers dead and hundreds injured.
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Introduced by French Montana and Billboard Awards executive producer and host Sean “Diddy” Combs, who recently asked Scott to perform during the ceremony, the rapper performed two songs, “Mafia” and “Lost Forever”—the latter a collaboration with James Blake and Westside Gunn—around a wintry, tundra-based setting wearing furry white pants and a satchel to match.
“I made a request,” said Diddy about Scott’s appearance on the awards show. “I made a demand. I said ‘My brother Travis Scott has to perform. Diddy is hosting the show. I’m executive producing. He has to perform,’ and NBC said ‘yes.’ It’s going down.”
Prior to the awards show, Diddy also said, “I am un-canceling the canceled.”
Scott’s fourth album Utopia is scheduled for release sometime in 2022. The artist is currently facing ongoing litigation around the Astroworld tragedy. Several lawsuits were combined into a single, larger lawsuit in January 2022, while compiling the thousands of alleged victims who are suing Scott and the concert promoter Live Nation.
Photo: Christopher Polk / NBC
