Kanye West’s Poland concert cancelled due to antisemitic remarks weeks after UK ban

The announcement came a day after Poland’s Minister of Culture and Heritage, Marta Cienkowska, said: “In a country marked by the history of the Holocaust, we cannot pretend that this is just entertainment”.

The Chicago-born rapper, now known as Ye, was scheduled to appear at the Silesian Stadium in Chorzów on June 19.

It would have been his first performance in Poland since 2011. The cheapest tickets were priced at around 650 PLN (£130), while VIP tickets reached up to 4,000 PLN (£820).

Stadium director Adam Strzyzewski said in a statement posted on Facebook that the concert would no longer take place due to “formal” and “legal reasons."

The decision comes just over a week after the British government barred Ye from entering the UK, resulting in the cancellation of Wireless Festival, which he had been due to headline.

His electronic travel visa authorisation was withdrawn after the government concluded his presence would “not be conducive to the public good”.

Read more: Kanye West postpones French concert 'indefinitely' following UK visa ban

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In response, Ye made a last-minute plea to avoid the ban, saying he wanted to come to London to bring “unity, peace and love through my music […] I know words aren’t enough - I’ll have to show change through my actions. If you’re open, I’m here."

However, a representative from the Board of Deputies of British Jews said: “It has been less than a year since Kanye West released a song entitled ‘Heil Hitler’, the culmination of three years of appalling antisemitism,” adding that its members were willing to meet the rapper if he agreed not to perform.

Earlier this week, the rapper postponed a concert in France amid mounting political opposition. He was due to perform at the Marseille Vélodrome on June 11.

Writing on X, Ye said: “After much thought and consideration, it is my sole decision to postpone my show in Marseille, France until further notice,” adding that he did not “want to put my fans in the middle of it”.

Marseille Mayor Benoît Payan had said he refused to let the city “be a showcase for those who promote hatred and unapologetic Nazism”. He added: “Kanye West is not welcome at the Vélodrome.”

The rapper was also barred from Australia last year after releasing a song promoting Nazism and selling swastika-branded clothing online, prompting Shopify to remove his store.

In January, Ye took out a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal apologising for his past antisemitic comments, attributing his behaviour to untreated bipolar disorder.

However, this was not his first apology. In 2023, he posted an apology in Hebrew asking the Jewish community for forgiveness, which he later retracted in 2025, instead declaring himself a Nazi.

The Wall Street Journal apology stated: “I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people.” He described a “four-month long manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behaviour that destroyed my life.”

The cancelled show was part of a limited international tour promoting his latest album Bully, with performances planned in Istanbul, New Delhi and Madrid.

His recent US performances went ahead without disruption, including two sold-out nights near Los Angeles. They were his first since 2021.

Polish officials had already voiced strong opposition to the concert.

"We are talking about an artist who has publicly expressed antisemitic views, downplayed crimes, and profited from selling swastika T-shirts," Cienkowska wrote on X.

"This is a deliberate crossing of boundaries and the normalisation of hatred.

"Culture cannot be a space for those who exploit it to spread hatred."

More than 1.1 million people, the majority of them Jewish people, were murdered at the Auschwitz death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War ⁠Two. The town of Chorzów itself was first invaded by the Germans at the outset of the conflict in September 1939.

Today, promoting Nazi symbols is a criminal offence in Poland and can carry a prison sentence of up to three years.

The decision adds to a growing list of countries pushing back against the rapper, with bans or cancelled shows already seen in the UK, Australia, South Korea and Brazil.

Kanye has already performed in the US and Mexico this year, with further appearances planned across Europe and Asia, although it remains unclear how many will now go ahead.