French rapper Médine has been pulled from the Les Solidarités festival lineup in Namur, the organisation announced on Wednesday. The move comes amid a controversy surrounding an antisemitic tweet.
“Despite the artist’s apologies and explanations, a wave of reactions, sometimes hateful, sometimes more balanced, swept across the internet and were relayed by the press,” the festival said.
“Les Solidarités has always claimed to be a family festival, open to diversity and exchange between people and genres. The ambition of this 9th edition is to make a success of a fine event on a brand new location and not to suffer a controversy which is out of our control,” continues the organisation.
In consultation with the Mayor of the City of Namur, Maxime Prévot, and several partners, and after contacting the artist’s representatives, it was decided to cancel the rapper’s appearance, which was scheduled for Friday.
The decision was taken “with a certain amount of consternation, but in the interests of keeping the peace,” explain the organisers.
“In doing so, we intend to ensure that Solidarités does not serve as an enforcer for certain people at the risk of tarnishing an edition that promises to be under the best of intentions,” the organisers conclude.
Médine admitted his mistake in two interviews on Wednesday. “Anti-Semitism is a poison, and I’ve been fighting it for a long time,” said the artist, who has been at the heart of a controversy for the past ten days over a pun on X (formerly Twitter) which described French-Gambian essayist Rachel Khan, a Jew and granddaughter of deportees, as a “resKHANpée”, in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper.
In one article, Médine stated that it meant “a person who was dumped by the Hip-Hop scene, drifting among social traitors and literally eating at the far-right table.” However, the statement was widely condemned as being anti-Semitic given that Khan is the granddaughter of a Second World War deportee.
“It was a mistake, I admit it”, he added, explaining that he “didn’t have her family history in mind” when he published this “clumsy tweet” – which was in response to a message from Khan describing him as “rubbish”.
In the past, Médine justified the “quenelle” gesture, an antisemitic gesture made almost ten years ago by the polemicist Dieudonné. “I thought it was freedom of expression,” he said, saying he realised “too late” that it was an “antisemitic rallying cry”.
Médine, who is committed to opposing police violence and supporting working-class neighbourhoods, is regularly confronted for his outspoken stances.
