Pass parameters to cursor.execute('Listen ')?

When performing LISTEN on a channel, passing parameters results in a
syntax error

>>> cursor.execute('Listen %s', ('hello',))`

ProgrammingError: syntax error at or near "'hello'"
LINE 1: Listen 'hello'

The only way I could get it to work is to % format it, which seems to be
very frowned upon in the documentation, with good reason, and would
prevent using `executemany` for multiple channels.

>>> cursor.execute('Listen %s'% ('hello',))

Is there any way to pass the channel as a parameter?