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By Matthew Robinson
News Editor
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The Wireless Festival has been canceled after Kanye West was blocked from traveling to the United Kingdom amid backlash over his previous antisemitic remarks.
Britain's Home Office told the BBC on Tuesday that the rapper had made an application to travel to the U.K. via an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA). It added that his application had been rejected because his presence would not be conducive to the public good.
Later on Tuesday, a spokesman for the festival announced that the event had been canceled, saying that "antisemitism in all its forms is abhorrent."
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What To Know
West, who changed his legal name to Ye in 2021, has previously voiced support for Adolf Hitler, and released a song last year called "Heil Hitler."
On Tuesday, he offered to "meet and listen" to members of the U.K.'s Jewish community. "I've been following the conversation around Wireless and want to address it directly. My only goal is to come to London and present a show of change, bringing unity, peace and love through my music," he said.
"I would be grateful for the opportunity to meet with members of the Jewish community in the U.K. in person, to listen. I know words aren't enough—I'll have to show change through my actions. If you're open, I'm here."
In January, West also took out an advert in The Wall Street Journal apologizing for his antisemitic behavior, attributing it to his bipolar disorder.
The Wireless Festival said on Tuesday that it recognized the "real and personal impact these issues have had," and said ticket holders would be refunded.
"As with every Wireless Festival, multiple stakeholders were consulted in advance of booking Ye and no concerns were highlighted at the time," it said.
"As Ye said today, he acknowledges that words alone are not enough, and in spite of this still hopes to be given the opportunity to begin a conversation with the Jewish community in the U.K."
After West was announced as the headliner of the festival, he faced sharp backlash from British politicians.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said it was "deeply concerning" that West had been booked to perform "despite his previous antisemitism remarks and celebration of Nazism."
Health Secretary Wes Streeting also said: "When Kanye West uses bipolar disorder to justify his actions, I think that is equally appalling, by the way—I would ask people to consider, does using bipolar disorder as an excuse to write and release a song called 'Heil Hitler' and plaster it across T-shirts, does bipolar disorder really justify that? Or is it an excuse to justify rotten behavior?"
What People Are Saying
Phil Rosenberg, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said in a statement on Tuesday: "It has been less than a year since Kanye West released a song entitled 'Heil Hitler,' the culmination of three years of appalling antisemitism. He also made a number of deeply offensive comments about the Black community, saying that the 400-year experience of slavery was 'like a choice.'
"Even while claiming remorse today, his latest album includes a track first released last year with the abhorrent title 'Gas Chamber.' The Jewish community will want to see genuine remorse and change before believing that the appropriate place to test this sincerity is on the main stage at the Wireless Festival.
"As such, we are willing to meet Kanye West as part of his journey of healing, but only after he agrees not to play the Wireless Festival this year."
The charity Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote on X: "Kanye West has reportedly been barred from entering the U.K., where he was set to headline Wireless Festival in London in July. The government has clearly made the right decision here. For once, when it said that antisemitism has no place in the U.K., it backed up its words with action.
"Someone who has boasted of making tens of millions of dollars from selling swastika T-shirts and who released a song called 'Heil Hitler' just months ago clearly would not be conducive to the public good in the U.K. Wireless Festival, in its desperate quest for profit, defended the invitation until the end. That is shameful, and its sponsors should continue to stay away."
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