Kanye West postpones France show after officials said he was ‘not welcome’

Ye has postponed a concert in France that was scheduled for this summer, after officials in the country said he was not welcome and threatened to ban him over his antisemitic comments and songs.

The news comes just over a week after the United Kingdom refused entry to the rapper, formerly known as Kanye West, leading to the cancelation of a summer festival he was due to headline.

Ye posted on X on Tuesday night that the show in the southern city of Marseilles on June 11, his only planned French date, would also no longer take place. “After much thought and consideration, it is my sole decision to postpone my show in Marseilles, France until further notice,” he wrote.

In a subsequent post on X he wrote: “I know it takes time to understand the sincerity of my commitment to make amends. I take full responsibility for what’s mine but I don’t want to put my fans in the middle of it.”

He added that he was looking forward to his remaining shows, which are scheduled in India, Turkey, the Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Spain and Portugal. There has been no suggestion of whether and when the French date might be rescheduled.

The socialist mayor of Marseilles, Benoît Payan, said in March that he would “refuse to let Marseille be a showcase for those who promote hatred and unapologetic Nazism” and said Ye was not welcome.

French Interior minister Laurent Nuñez had pledged to explore “all possibilities” to make sure the show would not go on as planned, according to his office, the Associated Press reported.

Bendayan Fabienne, a candidate in forthcoming local council elections in Marseilles and former president of the regional branch of CRIF, an umbrella group of Jewish organizations, condemned the decision to book Ye for the concert.

“Someone who openly proclaims his admiration for Hitler and claims Nazi ideas could not tread the stage of a city whose very soul is woven from diversity, memory, and fraternity,” she wrote on X in March.

Event management company Mars 360 told the AFP news agency that its contract with Ye had ensured there would be “no illegal remarks are made during the concert,” but such assurances were not enough for critics who feel Ye should not appear at all. ars 360 did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.

Last week the U.K. refused Ye travel documentation, effectively banning him from entering, which led to the cancelation of the Wireless festival that had been scheduled for July in London, with Ye as a headliner over three days.

Politicians and Jewish groups in the U.K. had called for Ye to be removed from the festival and at least four corporate sponsors including Pepsi withdrew their backing.

Ye has apologized for his repeated antisemitic comments and for praising Adolf Hitler — including releasing a song titled Heil Hitler and selling T-shirts displaying a swastika. He took out a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal to ask for “patience and understanding” and claimed his behavior was the result of an undiagnosed brain injury and mental health issues.

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