Kanye West has announced that he is postponing his concert in Marseille, France, which was scheduled to take place on June 11 at the Vélodrome stadium. The rapper, who now goes by Ye, faces a potential ban in the country amid ongoing backlash over his past antisemitic outbursts.
“After much thought and consideration, it is my sole decision to postpone my show in Marseille, France until further notice,” wrote Ye on X Tuesday night.
French authorities had grown increasingly vocal in their opposition to Ye performing at the venue. According to French newspaper Le Monde, officials were reportedly weighing whether his prior remarks “risk constituting a criminal offense and if public order is threatened.”
Last month, Marseille Mayor Benoît Payan made it clear that Ye was not welcome to the city. “I refuse to let Marseille be a showcase for those who promote hatred and unapologetic Nazism,” Payan wrote on X. “Kanye West is not welcome at the Vélodrome, our temple of living together and of all Marseillais.”
The controversy goes beyond France. Wireless Festival, the music event that was set to take place this summer in London’s Finsbury Park neighborhood, was cancelled last week after the U.K. denied Ye, the event’s headliner, a visa. The government had decided that an appearance by the Grammy-winning artist would “not be conducive to the public good,” the BBC reported.
Ye launched an apology tour for his past behavior in January with a full-page Wall Street Journal ad. “I owe a huge apology once again for everything that I said that hurt the Jewish and Black communities in particular,” it said. “All of it went too far.” The ad paved the way for his Bully album, which released in March. “In a way, it is his most human album to date, inasmuch as it proves that even stars as bright as Ye begin to dim with time,” Rolling Stone music editor Jeff Ihaza wrote in a review. Despite Ye’s controversial behavior, the album debuted at Number Two on the Billboard 200.
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ADVERTISEMENTThe announcement of the Marseille concert’s postponement is the latest setback to Ye’s efforts to mount a comeback. Earlier on Tuesday, the rapper was accused in a new lawsuit of punching a man two years ago at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood. The lawsuit includes claims for battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Ye’s spokesman, Milo Yiannopoulos, did not respond to an earlier request for comment.
Eric Rojas*
