Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, has postponed a concert planned for June in Marseille, France, as the French interior ministry said it was considering banning the event.
“After much thought and consideration, it is my sole decision to postpone my show in Marseille, France until further notice,” Ye wrote on X on Wednesday morning. This month, the British government barred Ye from entering the country to play a series of concerts because of his history of antisemitism.
Laurent Nuñez, France’s interior minister, had been considering banning the event, scheduled for June 11, an official at the country’s Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.
In a second post on X, Ye appeared to explain his decision. “I know it takes time to understand the sincerity of my commitment to make amends,” he wrote. “I take full responsibility for what’s mine, but I don’t want to put my fans in the middle of it.”
Opposition to Ye’s planned concert had been brewing in France. Last month, Benoît Payan, the mayor of Marseille, spoke out against it. “I refuse to let Marseille be a showcase for those who promote hatred and unapologetic Nazism,” Mr. Payan wrote on social media. “Kanye West is not welcome at the Vélodrome, our temple of living together and of all Marseillais.”
Ye had been scheduled to headline the three-day Wireless festival in London in July, but the event was canceled this month after the British government refused the rapper’s application to travel because “his presence in the U.K. would not be conducive to the public good.”
“Kanye West should never have been invited to headline Wireless,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain said on X at the time. “This government stands firmly with the Jewish community, and we will not stop in our fight to confront and defeat the poison of antisemitism.”
Ye has been working on an improbable comeback, less than a year after he released a song called “Heil Hitler” and after years of antisemitic statements. Last year, Australia blocked Ye from entering over that song.
In January, he took out an ad in The Wall Street Journal, saying that he regretted his recent antisemitic behavior and that he hoped to be forgiven by “those I’ve hurt.” Ye attributed his behavior — which included professing a love for Adolf Hitler as well as selling T-shirts emblazoned with swastikas — to an untreated bipolar disorder.
Ye had apologized to Jews for his antisemitic behavior before, in 2023. In early 2025, he took back that apology and declared himself a Nazi.
This month, Ye played his first full live shows in the United States since 2021. The two sold-out, 70,000-capacity shows at SoFi Stadium near Los Angeles were tied to the release of his new album, “Bully.”
Other shows on Ye’s international tour, which has been promoted as his reintroduction to prominent stages after he became an industry pariah, are scheduled to go ahead. In May, he is scheduled to perform in New Delhi and Istanbul, and in June he is booked for two nights in the Dutch city of Arnhem. In July and August, he has concerts planned in Italy, Spain and Portugal.
In the Netherlands, some politicians as well as Jewish groups have called for the cancellation of Ye’s concerts. So far, the Dutch government has said it would not bar Ye from the country.
Daphné Anglès contributed reporting from Paris.
Claire Moses is a Times reporter in London, focused on coverage of breaking and trending news.
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