--- title: Kanye West Storms Off Stage at Pan Am Games description: The rapper was frustrated by technical difficulties canonical: https://time.com/3973648/kanye-west-pan-am-games/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-27T20:55:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:22:37.877Z og:title: Kanye West Storms Off Stage at Pan Am Games og:description: He was frustrated by technical difficulties og:url: https://time.com/3973648/kanye-west-pan-am-games/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt527866e9c716b1e6/69885cac3c163925e0459020/kanye-west1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Kanye West og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kanye West Storms Off Stage at Pan Am Games twitter:description: He was frustrated by technical difficulties twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt527866e9c716b1e6/69885cac3c163925e0459020/kanye-west1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Kanye West Storms Off Stage at Pan Am Games > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=5bfea11c-12a2-4683-8946-387e3d5615e7&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jul 27, 2015 8:55 PM UTC  Kanye West preforms during the closing ceremony on Day 16 of the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games on July 26, 2015 in Toronto. Kanye West preforms during the closing ceremony on Day 16 of the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games on July 26, 2015 in Toronto. Ezra Shaw—Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jul 27, 2015 8:55 PM UTC When it comes to Kanye West’s on-stage antics, the question always remains: what’s next? Canadians caught a glimpse of the future last night during the closing ceremony of the Pan American Games in Toronto. West capped his 13 minute performance by throwing his microphone in the air and storming off-stage, apparently frustrated by technical difficulties. The choice of West as headliner for the Games stirred quite a bit of controversy. [A petition to keep Kanye from closing the games was signed by over 50,000 people.](http://time.com/3960219/kanye-west-pan-am-games-canadians/) Petitioners demanded a Canadian act headline the show, like Toronto’s Drake or Deadmau5. West started his performance in near darkness, before having the entire Pan Am Dome illuminated. The rapper ran through hits from his catalogue, including “Touch the Sky,” “Golddigger,” “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” and a reportedly intense version of “Black Skinhead.” The Games, held the year before every Olympics since 1951, feature competitors from throughout North and South America. This year more than 6,000 athletes from 41 countries. The United States beat out Canada in the medal count, 265 to 217. It's was pitch black in here & [@kanyewest](https://twitter.com/kanyewest?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) had them turn on ALL the lights. 😂 [pic.twitter.com/cy8hajLMwT](http://t.co/cy8hajLMwT) — Perdita Felicien (@perditafelicien) [July 27, 2015](https://twitter.com/perditafelicien/status/625484202096594944?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3973648/kanye-west-pan-am-games/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3973648/kanye-west-pan-am-games/"},"headline":"Kanye West Storms Off Stage at Pan Am Games","datePublished":"2015-07-27T20:55:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:22:37.877Z","description":"He was frustrated by technical difficulties","url":"https://time.com/3973648/kanye-west-pan-am-games/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt527866e9c716b1e6/69885cac3c163925e0459020/kanye-west1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt527866e9c716b1e6/69885cac3c163925e0459020/kanye-west1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Kanye West","caption":"Kanye West","creditText":"Ezra Shaw—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3973648/kanye-west-pan-am-games/","name":"Kanye West Storms Off Stage at Pan Am Games"}}]}] ```