Kanye West pulls out of Joel Osteen's virtual Easter concert

Kanye West has backed out of pastor Joel Osteen's virtual Easter concert over safety concerns for his Sunday Service choir.

The rapper had been slated to join actor/director Tyler Perry and singer Mariah Carey for Osteen's remote holiday worship, which will be livestreamed from his Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas on Easter Sunday.

However, while the original plan was that the choir would be masked and maintaining social distance while recording songs with Kanye for the gig, the 42-year-old rapper decided that he could not satisfy his artistic desires and safety concerns with these arrangements, so called off the appearance, TMZ reports.

The publication adds discussions were ongoing up until Good Friday, but the Jesus is King star ultimately couldn't make his plan work.

The Easter Sunday service will be broadcast over Osteen's megachurch feed at both 9.30am EST and 12pm EST.