Kanye West’s travel bans have forced the rapper into Russia.
West, known for his antisemitic outbursts and peddling of Nazi paraphernalia, has faced extensive backlash to his scheduled performances in Europe this year. He’s now resorted to performing in Putin’s Russia, according to The Guardian, and will be the most well-known Western act to perform in the country since the start of the Ukraine war.
The rapper, now known as Ye, is scheduled to perform on October 10th and 11th at St. Petersburg’s Gazprom Arena.
Despite conservative activists’ efforts to block Western influence on its culture, the most expensive tickets to the rapper’s show, priced around $1,850, sold out almost immediately after their release on Monday, the site reported. Cheaper tickets were the last to go, but also sold out swiftly, with all seats sold by Tuesday morning. West’s foray into the country follows a steady stream of rejections from European countries where he’d hoped to perform earlier this year.
In April, London’s largest music festival, the U.K.’s Wireless Festival, announced West as its headliner for each of its three-night concert series. The announcement cost the festival several major sponsors: Pepsi, PayPal, Rockstar, and Diego. He had previously tried to distance himself from his track release, “Heil Hitler,” and his online shop selling swastika T-shirts by apologizing in a full-page spread in the Wall Street Journal.
West blamed head trauma from a car accident and his bipolar-1 diagnosis for his embrace of Nazi imagery in January.
“One of the difficult aspects of having bipolar type-1 is the disconnected moments—many of which I still cannot recall—that lead to poor judgment and reckless behavior that oftentimes feels like an out-of-body experience,” he wrote in the long-winded statement.
He added, “I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and am committed to accountability, treatment, and meaningful change. It does not excuse what I did, though. I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people.”
The apology wasn’t enough to save the Wireless Festival—and once his Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) was denied (as his entry “would not be conducive to the public good”), the event was ultimately canceled altogether.
The following week, another show the rapper was scheduled to perform in the French city of Marseille was also canceled, after its mayor, Benoit Payan, declared that he was “not welcome” in the city. Payan added, “I refuse to let Marseille be a showcase for those who promote hatred and unabashed Nazism.”
West responded to the backlash, posting on X, “After much thought and consideration, it is my sole decision to postpone my show in Marseille, France until further notice. I know it takes time to understand the sincerity of my commitment to make amends. I take full responsibility for what’s mine, but I don’t want to put my fans in the middle of it. My fans are everything to me. Looking forward to the next shows.”
More doors closed, however, as Poland was the next country the rapper tried to perform in.
In June, Poland’s Culture Minister Marta Cienkowska moved to block the show, saying in a statement, “These aren’t ‘controversies.’ They’re consciously crossing boundaries and normalizing hatred. In a country scarred by the history of the Holocaust, we can’t pretend this is just entertainment.”
“The concert will not take place. Our lawyers are preparing a letter regarding this matter,” Cienkowska added. Ye’s June performance in Basel, Switzerland, was axed next, after its stadium spokesperson declared, “We cannot, in accordance with our values, provide a platform for the artist in question within this context.”
