Pressure from the Polish Government has led stadium managers to cancel a concert by US rapper Kanye West.
That came after the postponement of his show in France amid a furore over his past anti-Semitic comments and celebration of Nazism and a British decision to debar him from entry to the country.
West, now known as Ye, had only added the Polish date to his tour last week, following news that his appearance at a festival in the UK this summer had been cancelled after the British authorities denied him entry. A planned concert in France was also delayed amid talk of a potential entry ban. Another gig was cancelled at the weekend in Basle, Switzerland.
West was barred from Australia last year after releasing a song allegedly promoting Nazism and advertising swastika T-shirts on his website. He has, though, performed in the US and Mexico City this year, with further concerts planned in Europe and Asia.
He has in the past released a song titled Heil Hitler and was selling merchandise featuring a swastika on his website last year.
The Śląski Stadium in Silesia said in a brief statement on its website: “The Ye [Kanye West] concert scheduled for June 19, 2026 will not take place due to formal and legal reasons.”
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. She added hat “culture cannot be a platform for those who exploit it to spread hatred”.
“I cannot imagine that in Poland, a country where people were murdered in Nazi German extermination camps, we can organise a concert of an artist who openly says that he likes Hitler,” said Cienkowska in further remarks on April 17.
She added that she “hoped the concert organisers will come to their senses”, and said that she had been in touch with them to express this view.
But, if not, “the Polish state has tools to block people from entering the country and we will use them” she said while revealing that both the interior ministry and the foreign ministry were backing her.
Some 3 million of the 3.2 million Jewish diaspora were murdered in German-occupied Poland during the Second World War, of which 1 million died in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Promoting fascism, including the display of Nazi symbols, is a crime in Poland punishable by up to three years in prison.
The present Polish administration, though, wants to go further in terms of actual preventative actions and it is pushing for legislation to police the internet using officials, without a court order,
There was no immediate comment from the rapper on the decision to cancel the concert, In January West apologised for his behaviour, which he attributed to untreated bipolar disorder and renounced past expressions of admiration for Hitler.
West has branded his planned series of concerts this year an “apology tour” and in January he took out a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal apologising “to those I’ve hurt”, saying that he “loves Jewish people”.
After the French decision to postpone his gig, West wrote on X: “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. See you at the top of the globe.”
The only remaining European Union dates for West are Turkey (May 30), the Netherlands (June 6 and 8), Italy (July 18 ), Madrid ( July 30) and Portugal (August 7), but given the recent cancellations there is increasing speculation that the European leg of the tour may be cancelled in full.
While West has in the past been an ally of US President Donald Trump, calling him a “brother” and in his song Ye vs The People West explained his affinity for Trump’s ability to achieve “the impossible”.
