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Topics: Music, Kanye West, UK News
Greg Harris
Topics: Music, Kanye West, UK News
Warning: This article contains discussion of antisemitism which some readers may find distressing.
Kanye West will headline all three nights of Wireless Festival in the UK, a move that has shocked people around the world.
The controversial rapper, now known as 'Ye', will perform his first UK gig in a decade this summer, with his last festival headline set happening at Wireless in 2014. However, the 48-year-old artist's comments and outbursts in recent years have caused outrage and a public outcry.
He has previously been pictured wearing swastika T-shirts, called himself a Nazi, and he even released a song called 'Heil Hitler'.
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Phil Rosenberg, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said the UK government should consider ‘blocking him from entering the country’.
If West is banned from entering the UK, it would not be the first time he has has had a concert cancelled.
The Yeezy designer was banned from entering Australia last year, where the family of his wife, Bianca Censori, live.
Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke explained: "[West] has been coming to Australia for a long time… and he's made a lot of offensive comments.
"But my officials looked at it again once he released the Heil Hitler song, and he no longer has a valid visa in Australia."
West had a concert planned for the end of May last year at Incheon’s Munhak Stadium in Seoul. However, South Korean e-commerce company Coupang cancelled the concert ‘due to recent controversies involving the artist’, according to a statement.
The company did not elaborate on the controversies it was referring to, though it came after the release of the song ‘Heil Hitler’.
He has not been banned from entering South Korea.
São Paulo Mayor Ricardo Nunes issued a direct statement ahead of a concert West had planned in the city on November 29 last year.
According to a report by Metrópoles, the State Public Prosecutor’s Office in São Paulo (MPSP) planned to have riot police on standby during the show, and officers were instructed to arrest the rapper ‘if he sings a song or makes any kind of apology for Nazism’.
Nunes said: “No one who promotes Nazism will play or sing any words on public equipment belonging to the City Hall.”
The concert was eventually cancelled, though West has not been banned from entering Brazil in the future.
When speaking about West headlining Wireless Festival, Phil Rosenberg said of West: “We're in this moment of really high levels of antisemitism. So to have someone whose recent track record is, as you said, declaring himself a Nazi, putting out a song called 'Heil Hitler', seems to be absolutely the wrong decision and many Jewish people will worry that that will just inflame what is already a very febrile situation.”
West apologised for his antisemitic outbursts several months ago, which he said were made during a bipolar episode.
Rosenberg added: “I'm very sympathetic to the challenges he has with mental health and bipolar disorder. But the challenge is maybe he's not in complete control of his ability to do those things.
“And we're really worried that on stage at the Wireless Festival, he'll suddenly come out with more of these things. And the organisers really need to think carefully about this.”
London Mayor Saqid Khan recently issued a statement in response to the news of West headlining Wireless, saying: "We are clear that the past comments and actions of this artist are offensive and wrong, and are simply not reflective of London’s values."