French rap duo PNL won’t perform at Coachella despite last-ditch efforts to fix visa issue
Despite last-ditch efforts, French rap duo PNL won’t appear at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival this weekend.
Last weekend the duo, comprising brothers Tarik and Nabil Andrieu, were forced to pull its gig in the 11th hour because of a visa issue with Tarik.
“After months of administrative procedures, one of the two of us still wasn’t authorized to come back to the United States for the reasons you are probably imagining,” the duo announced last weekend.
There were hopes that the visa would come through in time for the second weekend, but the visa was refused this week, according to the duo.
PNL wanted to play from France and broadcast live to the festival, but that wasn’t an option.
Coachella would have marked the duo’s U.S. debut.
The brothers grew up in the Parisian suburb of Corbeil-Essonnes to immigrant parents. Their group name stands for Peace N’ Lovés (which translates to peace and money).
Although Tarik and Nabil Andrieu, who perform as Ademo and N.O.S, aren’t overtly political in their music, fans turned to their songs during the 2016 protests in Paris over labor laws. A key slogan during the demonstrations was “Le Monde Ou Rien,” which translates to “the world or nothing” and was the title of a track on the duo’s second album, “Le Monde Chico.”
Despite visa issues keeping the duo from making its American debut, the Andrieus remain undeterred.
“[This] is not what will stop us,” the group said in a statement on Thursday. “On the contrary it gives us even more ambition.”
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