Poland’s second-largest stadium announced Friday that it is canceling Kanye West’s planned summer concert, citing his past antisemitic remarks. The management of Silesian Stadium in Chorzów, which can hold more than 85,000 spectators, said in an official statement that “the show scheduled for June 19 will not take place due to formal and legal reasons.”
The decision followed pressure from the Polish government and strong opposition from Culture Minister Marta Cienkowska. “In a country scarred by the history of the Holocaust, we cannot pretend that this is just entertainment. Artistic freedom does not mean giving a free pass to everything. Culture cannot be a space for those who exploit it to spread hatred," she wrote in a post on social media.
“We are talking about an artist who has publicly expressed antisemitic views, downplayed crimes, and profited from selling swastika T-shirts. These are not ‘controversies.’ This is a deliberate crossing of boundaries and the normalization of hatred,” she also wrote.
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Poland is the third European country in which a Kanye West concert has been canceled
(Photo: AP)
The Polish cancellation joins a broader trend across Europe blocking West’s attempted comeback. Last week, the British government announced it would bar the rapper from entering the country, leading to the cancellation of the Wireless music festival in London, where he had been set to perform in July. In France, a planned show in Marseille was postponed after authorities voiced opposition and considered banning it altogether. West faced a similar boycott in Australia last year after releasing a song promoting Nazism and selling swastika shirts on his website.
The 48-year-old rapper, who previously declared “I love Nazis” and released a song titled “Heil Hitler,” published a full-page apology in The Wall Street Journal in January, stating that he is not a Nazi or an antisemite and expressing love for the Jewish people. West attributed his behavior to a manic episode stemming from untreated bipolar disorder.
Despite being shut out in Europe, West is seeing commercial success in the United States with his 12th studio album, "Bully." The album’s promotional tour has proceeded without incident, with the rapper performing two sold-out shows at SoFi Stadium near Los Angeles for 70,000 fans, joined on stage by Lauryn Hill.
The new album has amassed tens of millions of streams and is ranked No. 2 on the sales charts, just behind K-pop group BTS. In fact, Bully has broken the rapper’s Spotify streaming records for 2026 and is on track to sell more than 300,000 copies.