Kanye West’s June 19 concert in Chorzów, Poland has been scrapped, after the country’s culture minister condemned the artist and argued his past antisemitic remarks should disqualify him from performing in a nation “scarred by the history of the Holocaust.”
ATLANTA, GEORGIA - JULY 22: Kanye West is seen at ‘DONDA by Kanye West’ listening event at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on July 22, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Universal Music Group)
Getty Images for Universal Music Group
The Poland concert that was scheduled for June 19 in Chorzów has been cancelled according to the stadiums website.
The Director of the stadium Adam Strzyżewski said it is being cancelled due to formal and legal reasons.
Before the cancellation, Culture Minister Marta Cienkowska said on X that West should not be given a platform after he has publicly expressed antisemitic views and profited from controversial merchandise.
She added that artistic freedom does not justify amplifying hate and emphasized that culture should not be a space where such rhetoric is spread.
West previously postponed his France tour date on April 14 following backlash from Benoît Payan, the mayor of Marseille, who said he would not allow the city to serve as a showcase that promotes Nazism.
Key Background
West is set to launch his European tour on May 23 in New Delhi in support of his new album Bully, which is currently No. 2 on the Billboard 200. The tour rollout has faced mounting scrutiny in recent weeks. After West was announced as a headliner for the Wireless Festival and was subsequently blocked from entering the U.K., officials in other European countries, including France, began raising concerns about hosting his performances due to his past antisemitic comments. Most recently, West postponed his France stop indefinitely, writing on X that the show would be delayed “until further notice” and that he would see [his] fans at the top of the globe. Shortly after, a Poland date was added to his official tour schedule. His upcoming tour will also stops in cities across Turkey, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Portugal
Tangent
Chorzów holds deep historical significance as one of the first towns invaded by German forces at the outset of World War II in September 1939. Its location in southern Poland, near the German border, made it strategically vulnerable and an early target during the invasion. The swift occupation of Chorzów marked the beginning of a broader campaign that would engulf the country and ultimately lead to the atrocities of the Holocaust.
此内容由惯性聚合(RSS阅读器)自动聚合整理，仅供阅读参考。 原文来自 — 版权归原作者所有。