Following this morning's announcement that Kanye West will close the Pan Am Games, Toronto Mayor John Tory chimed in to say he was proud to have the rapper representing his country onstage. Only thing is, up until a couple of hours ago, Tory thought Lord Yeezus was from Canada.
The citizenship-confusing gaffe was made shortly after the Games' announced West will appear at the closing ceremonies at Rogers Centre on July 26. While speaking with reporters, Tory hinted that he wasn't a full-blown fan, evidenced by a follow-up comment that mistook the famous rapper for being a homegrown artist.
"I won't say that I spend every single night at home listening to his music," Tory said [via Huffington Post]. "And I'm smart enough to know that he's a proud product of our music industry here, as are a number of others."
The mayor was quickly corrected, which led him to admit he hadn't been properly briefed with the full details of Yeezy's origins. He joked, "I wish he was Canadian."
You can watch it all go down in the video below.
While many, including the mayor, appear to be excited for the upcoming concert, an online petition has gone up with plans to block the performance. So far, over 600 people have signed the online petition titled "Don't have Kanye West perform the closing ceremony for the Toronto Pan American Games." The petition wants to axe the planned West appearance, and implores organizers to put the spotlight on a Toronto-area performer instead.
The petition reads: "It would only be just to ask a proud Torontonian (or even a Canadian for that matter) in the music industry to perform, such as Drake, Walk Off The Earth, Feist, Metric, Shania Twain, deadmau5, Crystal Castles, Zeds Dead, The Weeknd, Peaches, K'naan, Serena Ryder, and many many more!"
It should be pointed out that the Closing Ceremonies will, in fact, feature a performance from Canadian songwriter Serena Ryder, as well as U.S. rapper Pitbull.
Canadian Kanye haters had likewise staged a campaign against the artist performing at last weekend's Ottawa Bluesfest, though their pursuit failed.
The citizenship-confusing gaffe was made shortly after the Games' announced West will appear at the closing ceremonies at Rogers Centre on July 26. While speaking with reporters, Tory hinted that he wasn't a full-blown fan, evidenced by a follow-up comment that mistook the famous rapper for being a homegrown artist.
"I won't say that I spend every single night at home listening to his music," Tory said [via Huffington Post]. "And I'm smart enough to know that he's a proud product of our music industry here, as are a number of others."
The mayor was quickly corrected, which led him to admit he hadn't been properly briefed with the full details of Yeezy's origins. He joked, "I wish he was Canadian."
You can watch it all go down in the video below.
While many, including the mayor, appear to be excited for the upcoming concert, an online petition has gone up with plans to block the performance. So far, over 600 people have signed the online petition titled "Don't have Kanye West perform the closing ceremony for the Toronto Pan American Games." The petition wants to axe the planned West appearance, and implores organizers to put the spotlight on a Toronto-area performer instead.
The petition reads: "It would only be just to ask a proud Torontonian (or even a Canadian for that matter) in the music industry to perform, such as Drake, Walk Off The Earth, Feist, Metric, Shania Twain, deadmau5, Crystal Castles, Zeds Dead, The Weeknd, Peaches, K'naan, Serena Ryder, and many many more!"
It should be pointed out that the Closing Ceremonies will, in fact, feature a performance from Canadian songwriter Serena Ryder, as well as U.S. rapper Pitbull.
Canadian Kanye haters had likewise staged a campaign against the artist performing at last weekend's Ottawa Bluesfest, though their pursuit failed.
