Mahmood and Mara Sattei pull out of Rome concert in solidarity with rapper Tony Effe amid claims of censorship.

Rome's plans for a major New Year's Eve concert at the Circus Maximus were left in disarray on Wednesday after the Italian capital found itself without any headline acts.

The problems started last weekend shortly after the city announced the concert's line-up with great fanfare and talk of 80,000 revellers gathering in Rome to ring in 2025.

The controversy centred on rapper Tony Effe and accusations that his lyrics are sexist, violent and misogynistic, with immediate calls for him to be axed from the concert programme.

Elisa Ercoli, president of the Differenza Donna association, said the rapper's lyrics represented a "culture of abuse and contempt towards women", adding that his presence "would be an unbearable offence to all women who suffer violence and to the victims of femicide".

Politicians added their voices to the protest, including from within the centre-left Partito Democratico of Rome's mayor Roberto Gualtieri, who subsequently caved in to pressure and asked Tony Effe to take a "step back" to avoid creating "division".

• Tony Effe: Rome New Year's Eve concert mired in sexism row

However the city's concert plans took a further nosedive on Wednesday afternoon when one of the two other headline acts, Mahmood, pulled out in solidarity with Tony Effe.

"I believe it is a form of censorship, so I too have decided not to participate in the capital's New Year's Eve" - Mahmood wrote in a story on Instagram - "I firmly believe that any form of art can be discussed and criticised, but censorship should not exist".

Shortly afterwards, the last remaining act on the concert line-up, Mara Sattei, announced that she too was pulling out, writing on Instagram: "I don't think it's right to prevent an artist from performing, depriving them of their freedom of expression".

In the meantime Tony Effe has received support from other musicians, including Giorgia, Emma Marrone, Noemi and Lazza, who all slammed the move against the rapper as censorship, a claim that Gualtieri denies.

"Everyone can sing but in this case we are talking about the New Year's concert, paid for with public money" - the mayor told La7 television programme Di Martedì on Tuesday - "Tony Effe can do all the concerts he wants but on New Year's Eve we will do something else".

On Wednesday evening the city took down the page on its website dedicated to the concert and cancelled a press conference on Thursday about its plans for New Year's Day events.

Photo Roma Capitale