Kanye West concert in Poland will be cancelled, venue says
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
US rapper Kanye West has celebrated Nazism. World War II Nazis killed more than three million of Poland’s 3.2 million Jewish population.
PHOTO: AFP
DeeperDive is a beta AI feature. Refer to full articles for the facts.
- Polish stadium cancels Kanye West's 2026 concert due to his past anti-Semitic comments and pro-Nazism views.
- The cancellation follows Britain blocking West from headlining a festival and Polish authorities signaling a ban, citing Holocaust sensitivities.
- West, who apologised in January, attributed his behaviour to untreated bipolar disorder, but past actions led to bans in Australia too.
AI generated
WARSAW - A Polish stadium said on April 17 that it will cancel a concert by US rapper Kanye West days after he postponed a show in France amid a furore over his past anti-Semitic comments and celebration of Nazism.
“We would like to inform you that the Ye (Kanye West) concert planned for 19 June 2026 at the... Slaski stadium will not take place due to formal and legal reasons,” stadium director Adam Strzyzewski said, in a statement posted on Facebook.
The decision by the Slaski stadium in the western city of Chorzow, first reported by Wyborcza newspaper on its website, comes just over a week after Britain blocked the 48-year-old from travelling there to headline a festival.
There was no immediate comment from the rapper, now known as Ye, who in January apologised for his behaviour, which he attributed to untreated bipolar disorder, and renounced past expressions of admiration for Adolf Hitler.
Authorities in Poland had already signalled they would seek to ban the planned June 19 concert.
“In a country scarred by the history of the Holocaust, we cannot pretend that this is just entertainment,” Polish Culture Minister Marta Cienkowska said on April 16.
More than 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, were murdered at the Auschwitz death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. Nazi Germany killed more than three million of Poland’s 3.2 million Jewish population.
West was barred from Australia in 2025 after releasing a song promoting Nazism and advertising swastika T-shirts on his website.
He has performed in the United States and Mexico City this year, with further concerts planned in Europe and Asia. REUTERS
