Kanye West hurled his microphone into the air before stomping off stage during his Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games closing ceremony set.
The American rapper opened his performance with Stronger before clapping his hands, lying on his back and leaping around the stage at the Rogers Centre as he entertained the 30,000 strong crowd with Black Skinhead, Can't Tell Me Nothing, Touch The Sky and All Of The Lights.
Dressed in baggy denim jeans and a blue jumper, West promptly cut the set short at 13 minutes while halfway through performing Good Life due to technical difficulties.
He threw his microphone into the air and left the stage as it came crashing down.
<blockquote class="twitter-video" lang="en"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">KANYE WITH THE BEST MIC DROP OF ALL TIME WEE !!! <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/YEEZUS?src=hash" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-123506-https://twitter.com/hashtag/YEEZUS?src=hash" data-vars-event-id="c23">#YEEZUS</a> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=9&id=222025&p=http://t.co/S8OZbq2F6E" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-123506-http://t.co/S8OZbq2F6E" data-vars-event-id="c23">pic.twitter.com/S8OZbq2F6E</a>— Alex Weldemichael (@AlexWelde27) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/AlexWelde27/status/625487036380786688" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-123506-https://twitter.com/AlexWelde27/status/625487036380786688" data-vars-event-id="c23">July 27, 2015</a>
The official Olympic Network for Canadians confirmed his departure was dure to technical difficulties, tweeting: "UPDATE: Official word from #TO2015 on Kanye's mic issues: "Technical error." #CBCPanAm #closingceremony."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">UPDATE: Official word from <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TO2015?src=hash" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-123506-https://twitter.com/hashtag/TO2015?src=hash" data-vars-event-id="c23">#TO2015</a> on Kanye's mic issues: "Technical error." <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CBCPanAm?src=hash" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-123506-https://twitter.com/hashtag/CBCPanAm?src=hash" data-vars-event-id="c23">#CBCPanAm</a> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/closingceremony?src=hash" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-123506-https://twitter.com/hashtag/closingceremony?src=hash" data-vars-event-id="c23">#closingceremony</a>— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/CBCOlympics/status/625497002936266752" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-123506-https://twitter.com/CBCOlympics/status/625497002936266752" data-vars-event-id="c23">July 27, 2015</a>
West's performance at the games caused controversy after there were calls for the performers to be Canadian artists.
A petition was launched calling for the games to have him replaced.
A message on the change.org page – which garnered more than 54,000 supporters – read: “The Toronto Pan Am games have proven to be very important for Torontonians this year and have triggered a unified sense of pride in our city. 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, and many many more!
“The options for Toronto artists are far from limited and choosing someone like Kanye West raises several concerns among the people. Why was a local artist or group not chosen and supported, just as our local athletes are throughout the games?”
Other acts who played at the event included Pitbull and Serena Ryder.
