Kanye West to perform in Netherlands despite bans elsewhere

Published 29 May, 2026 04:52pm 2 min read
Kanye West and Bianca Censori pose at the red carpet during the 67th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California. -- Reuters
Kanye West and Bianca Censori pose at the red carpet during the 67th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California. -- Reuters

US rapper Kanye West, who has been barred from performing in several countries due to past antisemitic comments, is set ​to hold concerts in the Netherlands next month, after its ‌migration minister said there were no legal grounds to deny him entry.

Dutch lawmakers had urged the government to bar West, who is now known as Ye, ​citing his past remarks and expressions of admiration for Nazism ​and Adolf Hitler.

“Solid grounds are needed to bar people ⁠from entering (the Netherlands). We have not found those in the analyses ​that were conducted,” Bart van den Brink said on Friday.

“His past statements ​are not, at this moment, a reason to deny him entry.”

The 48-year-old rapper will perform at the concert venue GelreDome in the city of Arnhem, about 100 ​km southeast of Amsterdam, on June 6 and 8.

They ​would be Ye’s first European performances since 2014, GelreDome said on its website.

Arnhem authorities ‌said ⁠no permits to protest the concerts had so far been requested.

Ye has faced a growing global backlash, including for his release of “Heil Hitler”, a song promoting Nazism.

In April, Britain denied Ye entry on the grounds that his ​presence would not ​be conducive to ⁠the public good, forcing the cancellation of his planned Wireless Festival appearance in London.

Later that month, ​he also postponed a Marseille show after reports that the French ​government had ⁠sought to block it, and a concert in Poland was also subsequently cancelled.

In January, Ye took out a full-page ad in US newspaper the ⁠Wall Street ​Journal, renouncing his past admiration for ​Hitler and apologising for his behaviour, which he attributed to an undiagnosed brain injury and untreated ​bipolar disorder.

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