A Kanye West concert in Poland has been cancelled, the venue has announced, following government pressure and condemnation over a string of antisemitic, racist and pro-Nazi comments by the US rapper. West, also known as Ye, was scheduled to appear at the Silesian Stadium in Chorzów on 19 June, his first performance in Poland for 15 years, but the venue said on Friday it would now not take place 'due to formal and legal reasons'. Marta Cienkowska, Poland's culture and heritage minister, had described the decision to book West as 'unacceptable'. It comes days after West postponed a gig in France and a week after the UK banned him from entering the country to headline Wireless Festival.
In February last year, West started selling swastika T-shirts, prompting the commerce platform Shopify to take down his web store. Three months later, he released the track 'Heil Hitler', in which he claimed a child custody battle and the freezing of his financial assets turned him towards Nazism. In January, prior to the announcement of his European tour and the release of his latest album, the rapper apologised for his actions in a statement published as a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal, stating he was not a Nazi or an antisemite and expressed love for Jewish people.
Promoting Nazi symbols is a criminal offence in Poland, and anyone found guilty of publicly promoting Nazism can be imprisoned for up to three years. The rapper's comments were particularly painful in Poland, where under Nazi occupation during the Second World War, the Germans built and operated concentration camps to murder Europe’s Jews, including three million Polish Jews. Cienkowska highlighted West's expressed views as a 'deliberate crossing of boundaries and the normalisation of hatred' and emphasized that 'culture cannot be a space for those who exploit it to spread hatred'. The cancellation of West's concert reflects the strong societal pushback against his recent remarks and actions.
In February last year, West started selling swastika T-shirts, prompting the commerce platform Shopify to take down his web store. Three months later, he released the track 'Heil Hitler', in which he claimed a child custody battle and the freezing of his financial assets turned him towards Nazism. In January, prior to the announcement of his European tour and the release of his latest album, the rapper apologised for his actions in a statement published as a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal, stating he was not a Nazi or an antisemite and expressed love for Jewish people.
Promoting Nazi symbols is a criminal offence in Poland, and anyone found guilty of publicly promoting Nazism can be imprisoned for up to three years. The rapper's comments were particularly painful in Poland, where under Nazi occupation during the Second World War, the Germans built and operated concentration camps to murder Europe’s Jews, including three million Polish Jews. Cienkowska highlighted West's expressed views as a 'deliberate crossing of boundaries and the normalisation of hatred' and emphasized that 'culture cannot be a space for those who exploit it to spread hatred'. The cancellation of West's concert reflects the strong societal pushback against his recent remarks and actions.
