Kanye West, 48, caused a scandal with his comments and songs glorifying Adolf Hitler and his anti-Semitic diatribes, slippages which he attributed to his bipolar disorder.
American rapper Kanye West’s concert, scheduled to take place on July 18 in Reggio Emilia, northern Italy, has been banned “for reasons of public order and security”according to a press release from the prefecture.
The decision to take the prize for the president of the province of Reggio Emilia, Salvatore Angieri, “Following requests presented by (the consumer protection association) Codacons and by the Jewish Community of Modena and Reggio Emilia, who have expressed reservations regarding the rapper’s concert (…) scheduled for July 18 at the RCF Arena in Reggio Emilia as part of the Pulse of Gaia Festival.”specifies the press release published Friday evening.
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Songs glorifying Hitler
The concert of American rapper Travis Scott, planned the day before that of Kanye West, was also banned by the prefecture. “The decision concerns two events scheduled on consecutive dates at the RCF Arena, a structure with a capacity of approximately 103,000 spectators, and was taken for reasons of protection of public order and security, taking into account the close temporal link between the demonstrations and the large influx of public expected within 24 hours”précise la préfecture.
“The cancellation of previous concerts of the American rapper in other countries and the concrete risk of counter-demonstrations also weighed in the overall assessment.”add the same source.
Kanye West, 48, also known by his stage name Ye, caused scandal with his comments and songs glorifying Adolf Hitler and his anti-Semitic diatribes, slippages which he attributed to his bipolar disorder. The outrageous actions and remarks of Kanye West – in 2025, he released a song called “Heil Hitler” and put t-shirts adorned with a swastika on sale on its website – led to a series of cancellations of concerts scheduled as part of a tour in Europe.
“Neither a Nazi nor an anti-Semite”
In April, the British government banned the singer from entering the country due to his hateful comments, leading to the cancellation by organizers of a festival planned for July. A week later, the rapper was forced to postpone his planned concert in Marseille, France, following reports that the government might prevent the event from taking place.
In Poland, the managers of the stadium where the American rapper was to perform on June 19 also canceled the event. In Switzerland, the FC Basel football club told AFP that it had abandoned a plan for a Kanye West concert at its stadium in Basel.
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The artist nevertheless performed in Istanbul on Saturday, and is also due to give concerts in the Netherlands on June 6 and 8, in Tirana on July 11 and in Prague on July 25. In January, Kanye West had a full page in the Wall Street Journal claimed that he was not «neither a Nazi nor an anti-Semite» and that he “loved the Jews”.
