Poland has joined the UK in cutting links with Hip Hop artist, Kanye West, whose official name is now “Ye”. Recently, the UK canceled Kanye West’s visa, which led to the cancellation of the 2026 London Wireless Festival.
Kanye was to give a series of performances during that Summer festival, scheduled for the second week of July. Now Poland has considered the same reasons the UK did, namely West’s anti-Semitic utterances, and canceled his planned concert.
Which Poland Concert was Canceled?
Kanye West was to perform at the Silesian Stadium as part of his planned 2026 tour of Europe. However, Adam Strzyzewski, the venue director, released a statement last Friday, the 17th, saying the concert planned for 19th June will not take place.
The Polish government found West’s admission untenable, after increasing condemnation from sections of the public and media outlets. Poland’s Minister for Culture and Heritage, Marta Cienkowska, said that even the idea of booking Kanye West was itself unacceptable.
West has made some provocative anti-Semitic comments in the past, but he has since apologized. However, he seems inconsistent in his attitude. For instance, early last year, he put some T-shirts on sale online, and they bore the swastika. Shopify, the online platform, responded by taking down his e-commerce web store.
After a few months, West released a track labeled “Heil Hitler”, a title that appears to praise Hitler, the notorious German Nazi. That inconsistency has made it difficult to believe him when he says he is not an anti-Semite, as he did in an apology carried by America’s Wall Street Journal.
Kanye’s planned visit to Poland was bound to invoke negative emotions. This is because when the German forces invaded Poland in 1939, Chorzów, the location of Kanye West’s planned event, was among the first places they attacked.