{"id":8444,"date":"2026-04-07T13:57:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/8444\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T13:57:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:57:06","slug":"uk-government-blocks-rapper-ye-from-entering-britain-to-headline-festival-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/8444\/","title":{"rendered":"UK government blocks rapper Ye from entering Britain to headline festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON — The rapper formerly known as Kanye West<\/a> has been barred from entering the U.K., where he was scheduled to perform at the Wireless Festival<\/a> in July.<\/p>\n

It came after government officials condemned Ye’s history of antisemitic remarks.<\/p>\n

The festival\u2019s organizers confirmed the ban and said the entire three-day festival was being canceled as a result.<\/p>\n

Ye\u2019s travel authorization had been blocked on the grounds that the performer\u2019s presence in the U.K. would not be \u201cconducive to the public good,\u201d the BBC said, citing the Home Office.<\/p>\n

Ye had been expected to perform in front of around 150,000 revelers July 10-12 at the open-air festival in London\u2019s Finsbury Park.<\/p>\n

Earlier, a senior member of the British government said Ye should \u201cabsolutely not\u201d play at the festival. Ye had responded to the controversy by offering to meet members of the U.K.\u2019s Jewish community and show he has changed since provoking outrage with antisemitic statements.<\/p>\n

Festival organizers had been under mounting pressure from sponsors and politicians to cancel the gigs by the rapper, who has drawn widespread condemnation<\/a> for making antisemitic remarks and voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler.<\/p>\n

Last year, Ye released a song called \u201cHeil Hitler\u201d and advertised a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website. The 48-year-old apologized in January with a letter, published as a full-page advertisement in The Wall Street Journal. He said his bipolar disorder led him to fall into \u201ca four-month long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wireless sponsors Pepsi, Rockstar Energy and Diageo pulled out of the festival<\/a> since Ye was announced as the headliner, and Starmer called the booking \u201cdeeply concerning.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement Tuesday, Ye, who changed his name in 2021, said he \u201cwould be grateful for the opportunity to meet with members of the Jewish community in the U.K. in person, to listen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know words aren\u2019t enough \u2014 I\u2019ll have to show change through my actions,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re open, I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said the group would be willing to meet with the musician if he pulled out of the festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Jewish community will want to see a genuine remorse and change before believing that the appropriate place to test this sincerity is on the main stage at the Wireless Festival,\u201d Rosenberg said.<\/p>\n

Organizer Festival Republic had stood by Ye. In a statement issued Monday, managing director Melvin Benn urged people to offer the performer \u201cforgiveness and hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not giving him a platform to extol opinion of whatever nature, only to perform the songs that are currently played on the radio stations in our country and the streaming platforms in our country and listened to and enjoyed by millions,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

U.K. Health Secretary Wes Streeting dismissed the organizers\u2019 statement as \u201cabsurd\u201d and said Ye should \u201cabsolutely not\u201d perform at Wireless.<\/p>\n

A representative for Ye didn\u2019t reply to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON — The rapper formerly known as Kanye West has been barred from entering the U.K., where he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4228,93,623,13,103,3563,44,3562,14,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-8444","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-4228","9":"tag-antisemitism","10":"tag-article","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-fairs-and-festivals","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-hip-hop-and-rap","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116363778094762549","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}