Kanye West’s return to the stage just a week after his mother’s tragic death ended with the mourning rapper breaking down into tears.

After performing for an hour, West attempted to introduce a tribute to his late mother to a sold-out crowd at Le Zénith in Paris. The band began to play ‘Hey Mama’ as Kanye started saying, “this song is for my mother….”, but the star wept uncontrollably before finishing.

Audience members tell PEOPLE that West “just cracked, ” and “lost it completely” during the dedication of the song Kanye wrote for his mother, Donda.

“He said the word, ‘Mother’ and just couldn’t go any further,” Le Parisien journalist Meddy Magloire said, MTV News reports. “A back-up singer, the DJ and a guitar player came over to console him. It looked like he might collapse. He just stood there in a spotlight, crying, while the band continued playing.”

West had recently cancelled a performance at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion show and was a no-show at the memorial for Donda West in Chicago so it was a complete shock to fans when Kanye showed up in Paris.

West is scheduled to perform in Brussels on Sunday night, MTV reports, but it’s now expected he will return to the U.S to attend his mother’s funeral in Oklahoma City on Tuesday afternoon.






Related Stories: