Rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, has been forced to postpone his upcoming concert just weeks after his headline appearance at Wireless Festival in the UK was canned.
French authorities said they would seek to ban the concert, which was planned for Marseille’s Stade Vélodrome on June 11, prompting the rapper to pull the pin first.
“After much thought and consideration, it is my sole decision to postpone my show in Marseille, France until further notice,” Ye wrote on Wednesday on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“I know it takes time to understand the sincerity of my commitment to make amends.”
The rapper, who changed his name in 2021, was banned earlier this month from entering the UK, following a backlash over his history of antisemitic remarks.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez pledged to explore “all possibilities” to make sure the Marseille show would not go ahead as planned, according to his office.
Earlier this year, Marseille Mayor Benoît Payan opposed the rapper’s visit to one of France’s most multicultural cities, which has a history of immigration stretching back centuries.
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“I refuse to let Marseille be a showcase for those who promote hatred and unabashed Nazism,” Payan said.
“Kanye West is not welcome at the Vélodrome, our temple of community and home to all Marseillais.”
Ye has drawn widespread condemnation for making antisemitic remarks and voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler.
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Ye released a song called Heil Hitler and advertised a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website last year.
It led to Australian officials cancelling his visa last July, after the release of the single.
The 48-year-old apologised in January with a letter published as a full-page advertisement in The Wall Street Journal.
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He said his bipolar disorder led him to fall into “a four-month long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behaviour that destroyed my life.”
In his latest message on X, Ye added: “I take full responsibility for what’s mine but I don’t want to put my fans in the middle of it”.
“My fans are everything to me,” he noted.
“Looking forward to the next shows. See you at the top of the globe.”
– Reported with Associated Press.
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