Drake concert branded ‘dystopian' over fan signs begging for money
Photos from Drake's recent concert in Sydney are going viral as they showed fans with signs apparently begging the Canadian artist for money.
Drake has been known to hand out large sums to fans during shows or otherwise help them pay for medical bills, debts or other expenses.
Earlier this week, he was filmed scanning the crowd holding their signs aloft at the Qudos Bank Arena when he spotted one woman with a sign that said she was 20 weeks pregnant.
In the clip, the 'Hotline Bling' star, 38, reacted with disbelief as he ordered his security to 'get her out of there' and upgrade the fan to the VIP section and give her 'like $30,000'.
While performing in Melbourne, he reportedly handed out $25,000 to two fans, including one who referenced his seven-year-old son with a sign that said: 'Adonis for President.'
However, a picture of Drake standing on stage in front of hundreds of fans waving their signs has gone viral, with one person branding the scene 'dystopian'.
Among the placards were ones asking for help to buy an engagement ring, one who wanted to buy their mother a Hermes Birkin bag, another hoping to pay off her mum's mortgage, one asking for help paying vet bills, and one that simply said: 'Drake… Give my father a break.'
'We gotta bring back shame,' one disproving person wrote on X/Twitter.
'This photo is actually sad as hell,' another critic said.
Another wrote: 'If you can afford a concert, maybe spend the money you spent on attending on the necessities some of these signs are saying?
'But also, ban signs.'
'Going to a concert and making a sign begging the artist for money is actually embarrassing,' another X user agreed.
Enjoy unlimited access to 100 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music
Sign up now for a 4 month free trial (3 months for non-Prime members)
Critics on social media seemed divided over whether fans should simply show their appreciation for Drake during his shows, rather than ask him for money, or whether Drake himself had encouraged such behaviour.
In 2023, Drake gave one fan $50,000 after he claimed he'd spent all his savings on tickets for him and his girlfriend before they broke up.
Drake has been engaging in a flurry of generous activity in the wake of his rival Kendrick Lamar's performance at the Super Bowl halftime show.
The Compton-born rapper's 12-minute gig is now the most-watched halftime show of all time, beating previous records set by artists including Beyoncé, Bruno Mars, Madonna and the Black Eyed Peas.
Lamar's performance went viral in part thanks to his rendition of 'Not Like Us', his Grammy-winning diss track against Drake released last year.
Drake raised eyebrows last month when he filed a lawsuit against his own record label, Universal Music Group – which also represents Lamar – for defamation over lyrics in 'Not Like Us' that accuse him of being a paedophile.
The hip-hop artist, born Aubrey Drake Graham, claims in the lawsuit that Universal knew the allegations were false but 'chose corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.' Lamar is not named in the suit.
It continues: 'In controversy, UMG saw an opportunity, seized it, and continued to fan the flames.'
Drake is scheduled to play three further shows in Brisbane, before returning for his final Sydney show at the Qudos Bank Arena on 7 March.
Last weekend, it was announced that Drake would headline all three dates at this summer's Wireless festival, which will mark his first UK performances in six years.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time Out
an hour ago
- Time Out
How to get tickets for Kendrick Lamar's Australian tour: prices, pre-sale, dates and more
We gon' be alright. Actually, we gon' be more than alright because Kendrick Lamar is bringing his sold-out Grand National Tour to Australia in December. When Spilt Milk dropped the impressive line-up for its 2025 comeback, Kendrick fans across the nation went wild. The multi-Grammy-winning rapper will hit the stage with global superstars like Doechii, Dominic Fike and Schoolboy Q as the festival tours the country. Then, he'll perform solo shows in Sydney and Melbourne – woohoo! Here's everything you need to know about getting Kendrick Lamar tickets. When is Kendrick Lamar's Australian tour? It's time to get wild on a Wednesday! The rap icon will bring his Grand National Tour to two Aussie cities: Melbourne 's AAMI Park – Wednesday, December 3 Sydney 's Allianz Stadium on Wednesday, December 10 This will mark the first time Lamar has performed in Australia since his 2022 The Big Steppers Tour. When do Kendrick Lamar Australia tickets go on sale? The general sale kicks off on Monday, June 16 via Ticketek at 9am local time in Sydney and 11am in Melbourne. Is there a Kendrick Lamar pre-sale for Australia? For a legend like Lamar, you'd better believe it! The Vodafone pre-sale goes live on Thursday, June 12 at 9am in Sydney and 11am in Melbourne. Not a Vodafone customer? Several other pre-sales go live on Friday, June 13, with options for Visa holders, Live Nation members and My Ticketek members. How much are Kendrick Lamar tickets in Australia? Exact ticket prices are yet to be released, but we don't expect them to come cheap. Real committed Kenfolk can get in on the VIP packages – which include premium reserved seats and VIP merch designed by Kung Fu Kenny himself (the prices for those packages are also currently under wraps). Who's the supporting act for Kendrick Lamar in Australia? DJ Mustard has joined Lamar as the supporting act on the US and European legs of his Grand National Tour. However, the rapper hasn't revealed who will be his opening act in Australia yet. Where else is Kendrick Lamar playing in Australia? As part of Spilt Milk, Kendrick will perform in Ballarat, Perth, Canberra and the Gold Coast. His Grand National Tour is a more refined affair, with only two shows currently confirmed – one in Sydney and one in Melbourne – but we can cross our fingers that he'll drop more dates soon. 🥳 Everything you need to know about Spilt Milk 2025
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Sting: Governments have neglected the North East for decades
Sting is in a reflective mood. The Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter grew up in Wallsend, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and tells me he is "very proud" of his Tyneside the musician is less complimentary about the way the North East of England has been, as he puts it, "wilfully neglected by successive governments for decades".As he announces a significant donation to an arts institution in Gateshead, he also told the BBC: "The statistics for child poverty in the area are discouraging". It's clear from our communication that Sting wants to give back to the place and the culture that made him. The former Police frontman is donating an undisclosed amount to the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, sometimes described as the Tate Modern of the North East of nearly 50 years since The Police released their debut album featuring tracks such as Roxanne and Can't Stand Losing You. Those decades have brought him everything a boy who dreamed of musical success could have wished for; he's sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, as The Police frontman and bassist, and later as a solo artist. In 2022, he also made a reported $300m (£222m), selling his back catalogue to Universal Music years haven't been as kind to the region where he was raised and where a third of babies, children and young people grow up in poverty, according to recent data from the End Child Poverty Sting was born Gordon Sumner in 1951, the son of a milkman and a hairdresser, the North East still had a proud tradition of shipbuilding. He's previously said that his earliest memory was "a massive ship at the end of my street, towering over the houses and blotting out the sun".But after the decline of that industry, Sting - the yellow and black sweater he wore while performing in a jazz band as a teenager earned him the nickname and it stuck - tells me, despite "all the empty promises of 'levelling up'", for years governments have disregarded the North East, "ignoring its significant historical contribution to national life, both industrial and cultural".In response to Sting's criticisms, a government spokesman said it would "fix the crisis we have inherited". It's investing £140m in the seven most deprived towns in the North East, including Washington and Jarrow, as part of a wider £1.5bn investment across the country and told the BBC it is "taking decisive action to tackle the scourge of child poverty". He remembers a childhood rich in culture, despite his humble beginnings. "We didn't have any books in the house", he tells me by email, but "I was fortunate in the 60s to have had access to Wallsend library". He also recalls access to drama at the People's Theatre in Jesmond, one of the oldest non-professional theatre companies in the UK, visits to the Laing Art Gallery and also making his professional debut as a musician in the orchestra pit at The University Theatre."All of these institutions gave me a sense of the world beyond the shipyard where I was raised."The River Tyne's most famous shipyard, Swan Hunter in Wallsend, shut in 1993. Sting describes the now disappeared shipyard to me as "a real and symbolic victim of Government neglect if not betrayal".He tells me "I had to leave the area to 'make it'" - he moved to London in 1977 and soon after formed The Police with guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland - but his ties to the North East still apparently run deep. As a young Wallsend local, he tells me his love of music was fostered when he saw the virtuoso Spanish classical guitarist Andrés Segovia perform with the chamber orchestra that was then still called the Northern Sinfonia, at Newcastle's City Hall aged 14.A year later, in 1967, his mind was blown when Jimi Hendrix played the legendary (and long-gone) gig venue Club a'Gogo. The American guitar prodigy had been brought to the UK by the Newcastle-born bass player of The Animals, Chas Chandler. Fifteen-year old grammar school boy Sumner couldn't believe what he was seeing, later describing how he "lay in my bed that night with my ears ringing and my world view significantly altered".In 2023, North Tyneside Council honoured the cultural impact of his work and his connection to the region, granting him the Freedom of the Borough. At 73, he appears to be thinking deeply about the importance of cultural experiences for children growing up in the North East now. He says he has a debt to the region that he needs to pay back, telling me that art involves "the nourishing of creative sparks that can lie dormant in even the poorest households if not encouraged by exposure to human potential".Which brings him to the Baltic, which, like museums and art institutions across the UK, is facing challenging financial times in an era of diminishing public investment. It opened in 2002 in a converted flour mill, a key part of the regeneration of the Gateshead quayside on the south bank of the River Tyne. The Baltic showcases some of the world's best contemporary art - Anish Kapoor and Antony Gormley were amongst the first to exhibit there - and also takes an innovative approach to enticing people into the artspace. There's a café called The Front Room, with free tea, coffee and biscuits sponsored by a local company and breakfast clubs for hungry children in the school holidays. Sewing circles, book clubs, parent toddler groups and others use the space free of charge. In the past, local pit villages and council estates have been leafleted to advertise the Baltic as a centre for everyone. More than 300,000 children and young people take part in Baltic activities and programmes every donation kickstarts its plans to fundraise for a £10m Endowment Fund of private investment to safeguard free entry to the centre and ensure its community work can thrive into the future."The creative arts are of vital importance to the wellbeing of the community as a whole," he tells me and the Baltic "should be a beacon of hope for regeneration". He's currently on a world tour with his trio Sting 3.0. Amongst a packed schedule across the US, Asia and Europe, with summer dates in the UK including headlining at the Isle of Wight Festival and Latitude, he'll be heading to Tyneside for one night in October for a gala performance at the Baltic to help raise more funds, with tickets at £10,000 a been musing on his roots for some time. His concept album turned musical, The Last Ship, was inspired by the Tyneside shipyards of his childhood. It wasn't entirely well-received critically - or at the box office - when it premiered in the US in 2014. But it's since toured the UK, including to Newcastle, and Sting will perform in it again early next year in wants to sing more widely about the innovative spirit he sees in the North East, telling me: "Geordies are not strangers to innovation, the steam turbine and the locomotive were developed on Tyneside. Britain's success was largely built on these inventions."
BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
Rodgers marks first day with Steelers by revealing secret wedding
New Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has revealed he had a secret wedding earlier this NFL's four-time Most Valuable Player spent months contemplating his future before deciding to sign a one-year deal with the signed his contract on Saturday and in a picture posted by the team on social media,, external he had a black band on his wedding ring 41-year-old held a news conference on Tuesday after spending his first day training with the Steelers and one of the last questions was about the ring."Yeah, it's a wedding ring," said how long he's been married, he added: "It's been a couple of months."Rodgers was released after a disappointing second season with the New York Jets, becoming a free agent for the first time in his 20-year had visited the Steelers and reportedly received an offer from the New York Giants, but in April, Rodgers said that he was "open to anything", including 2011 Super Bowl winner previously said that he delayed his decision because of personal reasons and, earlier in Tuesday's news conference, he said: "I was dealing with a lot of things in my personal life."Some things improved a little bit, where I felt like I could fully be all in here with the guys."I didn't want to short-change the guys and be signed but be elsewhere mentally or physically. Until I could be here and be all in, I needed to take care of my business." Who is Aaron Rodgers' wife? Rodgers, who spent the first 18 years of his career with the Green Bay Packers, has had a number of high-profile partners during his NFL he has not been married previously and did not share any further information about his wife on to The Pat McAfee Show in December, he said he had a girlfriend named Brittani while discussing Christmas one of the co-hosts joked about whether it was singer Britney Spears, Rodgers replied: "Not Britney Spears, no. This is Brittani with an 'i'."Speaking to Pat McAfee again in April, Rodgers added that he is "in a serious relationship"."I have off-the-field stuff going on that requires my attention," he added."I have personal commitments I made, not knowing what my future was going to look like after last year, that are important to me."It now seems that one of those commitments was a wedding, perhaps even a honeymoon too. What else did Rodgers say on first day? After visiting the Steelers, Rodgers has said that he remained in regular contact with head coach Mike Tomlin before informing him of his 53-year-old is the NFL's longest-serving current head coach having been in charge at Pittsburgh since led the franchise to a sixth Super Bowl win in 2009, before losing the big game to Rodgers' Packers in 2011, and the Steelers have not had a losing record in Tomlin's 18 seasons in why he chose Pittsburgh, Rodgers said: "It starts with Mike Tomlin. I've been a fan of his for a long time."The rapport that fell in between me and Mike made it to where, as I was going through my personal stuff, that there wasn't any other option for me. It was here or not play [retire]."Only Peyton Manning (five) has been named the NFL MVP more times than Rodgers, yet a second Super Bowl win has eluded what a Super Bowl win with Pittsburgh would mean, Rodgers said: "It'd mean a seventh championship for the city. That'd be great."I have a lot that motivates me, but this is about the love for the game - a game that has given me so much over the years - and making peace with a nice, long career."
