During a performance in Australia Thursday night (Oct. 1), Donald Glover, the actor and comedy writer who goes by the name Childish Gambino in his musical projects, was booed off the stage. The show was promoted by the Newcastle venue The Cambridge Hotel as a show with "Childish Gambino & Royalty," but ticket purchasers were extremely unhappy with the show, and the fact that Glover was not featured as much as Royalty.
According to The Newcastle Herald, Glover stayed silent for a full 40 minutes to open the concert, which was initially promoted as "intimate" and the rap group Royalty were only anticipated to be the back-up act, although they ended up doing most of the performing.
Fans took to social media soon after to blast the rapper, but the venue was also criticized for misrepresenting the show as a full performance when it was actually only a DJ set. In a good public relations move, the venue went to Facebook to apologize and claim to be just as disappointed as ticket buyers.
"To everyone who came to see the Childish Gambino show last night we are as disappointed as all of you. We had the opportunity to present Childish Gambino to Newcastle in an intimate gig and we jumped at the chance as we aim to bring the best possible acts to Newcastle for music lovers," Entertainment Weekly reported about the post. "As seen last night, unfortunately we have no control over the act's performance once on stage. For those who aren't aware, Canberra and ourselves were two additional Childish Gambino shows that were promoted in the exact same way as part of his current tour and we were extremely excited to be presented with this opportunity."
The venue further said, "Subsequently he didn't deliver on what was billed and expected by everyone, including us. The Cambridge strives to deliver Newcastle the highest quality live music possible and we will continue to do so. Like you, we were equally excited to present the act and its only matched by the disappointment in the performance by the act."
A representative was not immediately available to comment on the controversy over his performance, but it remains unseen how ticket sales will go for his next performance in Australia.
