In his first televised performance since last fall’s Astroworld disaster, Travis Scott performed “Mafia” at the Billboard Music Awards, on a polar-themed set reminiscent of “Game of Thrones.”
The camera slowly zoomed in on him inside a cave-like room surrounded by a polar scene, dressed in a fur-and-white costume as he blasted into the song surrounded by similarly dressed dancers. They were all swaying about slabs of ice and fake ice slabs; The scene will suddenly turn into a surreal blurry black background like some parallel dimension.
He performed a short clip of a new song—most likely from his upcoming album, “Utopia”—before the performance abruptly ended, naturally followed by Morgan Wallen accepting an award presented by Pusha T.
Scott was nominated for Best Dance/Electronic Song along with Spanish producer HVME, for the electronic remix of Scott’s song “Goosebumps” for 2016.
This is Scott’s first televised appearance and second public performance since ten people were killed when crowds ramped up at Houston’s Astroworld Festival last fall (the first happened on May 8, for the Miami Grand Prix). The rapper was backed by BBMAs host and executive producer, Sean “Diddy” Combs who said in an interview with Revolt Black News that it would be “the cancellation of the cancellation,” referring to the backlash against Scott.
Scott wasn’t the only controversial choice that night, Morgan Wallen also had his first on-air performance since he came under fire in 2021 after releasing a video of the singer shouting the N-word.
This is only the first of many Scott shows staged for the rest of the year. He recently announced his appearance at three editions of the Primavera Festival in South America this fall. The long-running festival, which took off in Spain but has since spread to Southern California and South America, is held in São Paulo, Brazil; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Santiago, Chile and also home to the Bjork, Lorde, and Arctic Monkeys.
Scott has kept a relatively low profile in the months following the Astroworld tragedy last November. He offered to pay the funeral costs for the victims and spoke publicly about the tragedy that led to the cancellation of several concerts and collaborations with high fashion brand Dior.
Recently, billboards for Scott’s much-anticipated album “Utopia” appeared on the highway to Coachella ahead of this year’s festival — suggesting its release in the coming weeks. “Utopia” will follow Scott’s third studio album, 2018’s Astroworld and the Jackboys group from the following year. He released several songs including “Mafia” and “Escape Plan”, both of which arrived a few days before Astroworld.
In March, Scott announced Project Heal, an event safety initiative with a $5 million funding commitment backed by a long-term series of philanthropic and investment efforts.
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