It was the one French date for the sultry American rapper Kanye West: June 11, on the Vélodrome in Marseille. The City lastly determined to oppose it on Wednesday March 4, denouncing the uninhibited Nazism of the article.
“I refuse to allow Marseille to be a showcase for those who promote hatred and uninhibited Nazism. Kanye West is not welcome at the Vélodrome, our temple of living together and of all the people of Marseille,” the present mayor and candidate for his succession declared on X.
The ban on a present is, nevertheless, very effectively regulated and the Council of State has recalled in a number of case legal guidelines that it is just doable within the occasion of a danger that feedback constituting a legal offense are made and that the occasion might trigger disturbances to public order.
“‘I am a Nazi’, ‘I like Hitler’: Kanye West is not welcome in Marseille. Anyone who openly proclaims his admiration for Hitler and claims Nazi ideas cannot set foot on the stage of a city whose very soul is woven with diversity, memory and fraternity”, echoed on
This live performance, at the moment its solely date in France, is organized by the Mars360 company, unique operator of the Orange Vélodrome, which belongs to the town.
“Mea Culpa”
In a press launch despatched to AFP, Mars360 estimated that “the comments made by the artist in the past arouse legitimate emotion. All questions were asked to the tour manager who is organizing this concert, who explained that the artist presented his apologies, revealing elements of personal context, and that this world tour is taking place precisely after this mea culpa”.
And to make sure that “Mars360 was particularly vigilant, inserting specific clauses to ensure that no illegal remarks were made during the concert and that French law was fully respected.”
The 48-year-old musician, who has misplaced many followers and several other business contracts lately after anti-Semitic or racist releases, launched a tune “Heil Hitler” on May 8, 2025, on the event of the eightieth anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
In December 2023, the rapper apologized to the Jewish group after declaring just a few months earlier that he “loved Nazis”.
In 2022 he additionally aroused indignation by displaying himself with the slogan “White Lives Matter” (“White lives matter”, hijacking the well-known slogan “Black Lives Matter”) and went to a dinner at Donald Trump with the anti-Semitic white supremacist Nick Fuentes.
Suffering for years from bipolar dysfunction, Kanye West, who modified his title to Ye, defined on the finish of January that when “you are in a manic phase, you don’t think you are sick”, including: “I am not a Nazi or anti-Semitic. I love the Jewish people”.
With AFP
https://www.france24.com/fr/france/20260304-marseille-s-oppose-%C3%A0-un-concert-de-kanye-west-au-v%C3%A9lodrome-et-d%C3%A9nonce-son-nazisme-d%C3%A9complex%C3%A9