It had only been a week since his mother’s death when Kanye West returned to the stage in Paris for a concert Saturday night. And according to PEOPLE, he broke down in tears.
West had almost made it through the set of a 60-minute performance, but an attempt to pay tribute to his mother went horribly wrong, fans reported to People. The band started with a riff of “Hey Mama” West started to speak, but could get no further than “this song is for my mother” and stood there crying while the band played on at a sold out performance at Le Zenith.
“He just cracked,” one attendee told PEOPLE, “He was at the end of his concert and had just started to dedicate the song and then he just lost it completely.”
“He said the word, ‘Mother’ and just couldn’t go any further,” Le Parisien journalist Meddy Magloire said. “A back-up singer, the DJ and a guitar player came over to console him. It looked like he might collapse. He just couldn’t continue. He just stood there in a spotlight, crying while the band continued playing.”
After a few moments of stunned silence, Magloire says, the audience of 5,000 reacted by offering calls of encouragement, which grew into applause.
The band restarted the song, but West left the stage, returning after 10-15 minutes to conclude the concert with a rousing performance of “Stronger.”
“He was very nervous, seemed to have gathered himself up, and had a lot of energy,” Magloire says. “He kept shouting out to the audience, ‘I need you… I need you right now.’ and the public was screaming back. It was magic.”
