14 DAY TRIAL // Next time organizers want to close the Billboard Music Awards with an explosive performance, they might want to make sure it’s not too explosive. Kanye West was the closing act of last night’s gala for the 2015 edition and viewers at home couldn’t hear or see a good chunk of it.
On the bright side, members of the audience seemed to be having a blast. They were mostly celebrities and of the most famous, we should note.
Kanye West goes silent, unseen
You can see video of the performance below: it’s just what people tuning in for the live gala also saw. Kanye’s 2-song medley comprised new song “All Day” and the older release “Black Skinhead,” and clocked in at 5 minutes and 18 seconds.
Of this, viewers at home only heard 4 minutes and 16 seconds, as the rest was bleeped out by ABC censors. There are portions of “All Day” when no sound was heard for a good 15 seconds, prompting viewers to wonder if there was some technical malfunction to blame.
There wasn’t: ABC censors had to bleep out every cuss word and every N-word on the 2 tracks. If you’ve listened to the official, full version of “All Day,” you know there are many N-words on it, so that translated into long, awkward moments of complete silence in the broadcast.
To make matters even worse, Kanye was barely seen throughout the gig. He stepped on stage with “All Day” collaborators Theophilus London and Allan Kingdom, but they were completely obscured by the smoke and the pyrotechnics.
At the end of the performance, viewers were left wondering what the purpose of it was, since ABC would have been better off cutting it out completely from the broadcast. After all, it was only enjoyable for those in the audience.
Kendall and Kylie got booed
Reports online say that Kanye got booed at the end of the gig, presumably because some people were upset they couldn’t see him. You can’t hear that in the video below, but what you can hear are the boos directed at Kylie and Kendall Jenner.
The youngest of the Kardashian-Jenner clan, Kanye’s sisters-in-law, stepped up on stage to introduce their “brother” and “now doctor,” but many in the audience weren’t happy with the reality stars being present and in the spotlight at a music industry event, so they made sure they knew about it.
Always the pros, neither acknowledged the booing and continued with their introduction.