Grimes has cancelled her performance at dance music festival World Pride to “deal with family issues”.
- READ MORE: Grimes – ‘Miss Anthropocene’ review: an iconoclast continues to march to the beat of her own drum
The musician was slated to perform at the event, which is headlined by Jennifer Lopez and Troye Sivan, on June 7 in Washington DC. However, she’s now pulled out.
“I am so so sorry and regretful to say I have to cancel my pride show in order to deal with family issues,” she wrote in a statement on Twitter/X. “I want to say that I am aware the situation has been a great inconvenience to the fans for some time, and I am truly determined to make sure this is no longer the case very soon.
“I think the show is still going to be amazing and the lineup is great. I hope this is early enough and gives people enough time if they wish to change their plans. And I *will* make this up to you guys very soon.”
Her place on the line-up of an event catered to the LGBTQIA+ community was met with controversy when it was announced back in February, due to her relationship with Elon Musk and her alleged ties to the far-right movement.
“But why Grimes? Since when are white supremacist invited to pride events.?”, one commenter wrote on the festival’s Instagram post sharing the news. Another asked: “Will grimes be bringing elon musk out”.
Hello friends,
I am so so sorry and regretful to say I have to cancel my pride show in order to deal with family issues.
I want to say that I am aware the situation has been a great inconvenience to the fans for some time, and I am truly determined to make sure this is no…
— 𝖦𝗋𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗌 ⏳ (@Grimezsz) May 26, 2025
Hope Giselle, a transgender activist based in Washington DC, criticised the festival for booking Grimes in an Instagram Live video, per the Washington Blade.
“Grimes literally has children with Elon fucking Musk-rat, the person that is making us all feel this fucking small, or at least attempting to make us feel this fucking small,” Giselle said. “Y’all are gonna platform Grimes right underneath the headliners? That does not make fucking sense.”
It came after the Washington Blade reported that Grimes was allegedly seen at the far-right party held at Butterworth’s, which The Washington Post recently featured as a “MAGA hangout bar”, over the inauguration weekend.
Her relationship with Tesla CEO Musk has also caused controversy with fans. Musk leads DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), an initiative by the current administration led by President Donald Trump, who also signed executive orders curtailing policies aimed at protecting LGBTQIA+ citizens upon returning to power.
The executive orders by Trump included a declaration that America will only recognise “two genders”, specifically targeting the rights of transgender people.
The order would block workplace requirements that transgender people use pronouns that align with their gender. It also targets America’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and ends their federal funding.
Last year, Musk’s daughter Vivian, who is transgender, criticised her father, who claimed that she was “killed” by the “woke mind virus” while denying her current gender identity. Grimes tweeted in support of her, writing: “I love and am forever endlessly proud of Vivian.”
Grimes and Musk announced their split in September 2021, confirming that they had broken up after three years together but “still love each other”. However, the ‘Oblivion’ artist has been increasingly critical of the billionaire’s parental choices after the tech mogul paraded Lil X around the Oval Office in the White House back in February.
She told fans she “begged” him to keep their children out of the public eye, and in 2023 sued Musk over the custody rights to Tau. In November, opened up about her custody battle with Musk over their children, claiming: “I didn’t see one of my babies for five months.”
Over the summer, Grimes’ mother Sandy Garossino pleaded with Musk to let her 93-year-old mother see her great-grandchildren “one last time” while she was in “end-of-life palliative care”.