Kanye West Is Closing Out the Pan Am Games and Canadians Have a Lot of Thoughts

The rapper is closing out the Pan Am games and people aren't too happy.

By Seija Rankin Jul 17, 2015 6:40 PMTags
Kanye WestOLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images

UPDATE: It seems that the movement against Kanye's performance at the Pan Am games has gone official. Yep, you guessed it: There's a petition. The change.org plea is asking officials to remove the rapper as the headliner and replace him with a native Canadian along the likes of Drake or The Weeknd. These things rarely turn out in the petitioners' favor, but as of this publishing it does have over 41,000 signatures. Ouch?

Kanye West just booked another big gig, but not everybody wants to share in his success.

The rapper is going to be headlining the closing ceremonies of the ongoing Pan Am games (basically the Olympics for a much smaller audience). The news was first reported by Canadian native and Minnesota Timberwolves player Anthony Bennett via tweet, and later confirmed by the Canadian Olympic Committee. 

It's only the latest in a straight-up Canadian lovefest for West (he performed at Ottawa Bluesfest this past weekend), but it seems that the Canucks might not feel the same way. In fact, there's a sizable portion of Canadians who are pretty riled up about the Pan Am booking.

It's not that all Canadian people hate Kanye West of course (although it seems that there are some folks up north who aren't his biggest fans), it's just that they don't want to see him performing at the sporting event. Mostly people are pissed that the event's organizers chose to book a huge American musician instead of, say, supporting some homegrown talent who could actually be bolstered by the gig. And as much as we enjoy a Kanye West concert, it's kind of hard to argue with that logic. When in Canada, eh?

There are also a lot of fans who chose to make the obvious Kanye West joke: "Toronto, I'mma let you finish, but..." Or perhaps "Beyoncé should have won a medal." You get the picture.

Despite all the anger (and semi-anger) coming from Twitter, we doubt it's going to have any effect on West or the performance. After all he knows more than anyone that haters gonna hate.

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