Kanye West’s concert in Poland canceled after government criticism

Krakow (Poland).- The administrators of the stadium where the concert of the American rapper Kanye West, known as Ye, was to be held in Chorzów (Poland) have canceled the event this Friday, after the Government threatened to prevent the controversial artist from entering the country to prevent the celebration of the event.

The owners of the Silesia Stadium announced the cancellation of the show, for formal and legal reasons, as reported by the Polish news agency PAP. The venue decided to terminate the contract with the concert’s organizing company “after receiving pressure due to the artist’s history of statements,” the owners told the aforementioned media outlet. Previously, Polish Culture Minister Marta Cienkowska stated this Friday that she would avoid holding the concert for having exalted West’s Nazism, and warned that the Government “has the necessary legal mechanisms to prevent entry into the country” if necessary.

“I cannot imagine that in Poland, a country where people were murdered in Nazi extermination camps, we could organize a concert by an artist who openly says he admires Hitler, promotes Nazi ideology, and profits from selling t-shirts with swastikas,” the minister declared during a press conference in Warsaw.

The artist Kanye West was scheduled to perform on June 19 at the Silesia Stadium in Chorzów (south), a venue with a capacity of 55,000 spectators. The event, managed by the Polish organizer Projekt Hałas! (“noise project”), was part of a European tour that includes dates in seven other countries.

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West’s recent trajectory has been marked by the controversy raised by his antisemitic expressions and exaltation of Nazism. The rapper has generated outrage among his followers and the general public after posting images of swastikas on social media and making hate speech, although the artist maintains that his actions were the result of a mental health crisis and bipolar episodes. Poland’s stance comes shortly after a similar one in the United Kingdom, where the British Government prevented West from entering the country, who was going to perform at the Wireless Festival in London. The British Home Office officially based the ban on the rapper’s presence “not being beneficial to the public good”, following strong political pressure led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.