Kanye West

Industry experts say booking of controversial US rapper was calculated risk that has implications for all festivalsThe fallout over Wireless announcing Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) as its 2026 headliner was both swift and considerable.Last Sunday, major sponsors of the three-day festival, including Pepsi and Diageo, began to withdraw their involvement in the face of a significant backlash to Ye’s shocking pronouncements on the Jewish community and the Holocaust. UK Jewish groups threatened to protest if the shows went ahead. Keir Starmer called the decision to book the rapper who wrote a song titled Heil Hitler “deeply concerning”. Continue reading...

Lanre Bakare on the UK government’s decision to revoke Kanye West’s visa after Wireless festival booked him as a headlinerWhen Kanye West was announced as the headliner for Wireless festival in London this summer, the backlash was immediate.“He’d been on a campaign of four or five years of antisemitic trolling,” Lanre Bakare, the Guardian’s arts and culture correspondent, tells Nosheen Iqbal. “Embracing neo-Nazi imagery, pushing out far-right conspiracy theories about Jewish people.” Continue reading...

Rapper, who is legally known as Ye, has been criticised for making antisemitic remarks including voicing admiration for Adolf HitlerUK politics live – latest updatesThe rapper formerly known as Kanye West has been banned from entering the UK, the Home Office has said.West, who is legally known as Ye, has had his visa to enter and perform in the UK withdrawn, the department said. Continue reading...

Rapper who has previously made antisemitic remarks responds to criticism over his booking at London festivalThe rapper formerly known as Kanye West has broken his silence and offered to “meet and listen” to members of the UK’s Jewish community after a fierce backlash over his booking at London’s Wireless festival.West, who is legally known as Ye, has been criticised for making antisemitic remarks including voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler. Last year he released a song called Heil Hitler, a few months after advertising a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website. Continue reading...

Keir Starmer ‘is not a bystander’, says Campaign Against Antisemitism as it calls on him to stop rapper entering UKKanye West should be banned from entering the UK to perform at Wireless festival, the Campaign Against Antisemitism has urged.The Jewish charity is the latest voice to join calls for the rapper’s performance to be cancelled following his antisemitic remarks and raises doubts about whether the music festival, due to take place in London’s Finsbury Park in July, will go ahead. Continue reading...

PM says antisemitism is ‘abhorrent’ after booking of West, who has song called Heil Hitler and last year advertised swastika T-shirtKeir Starmer has said it is “deeply concerning” that Kanye West, the US rapper who has made a series of antisemitic comments, is to appear at a British music festival.The prime minister joins others who have criticised Wireless festival for booking the musician, also known as Ye, to headline all three nights of the forthcoming event in London. Continue reading...