{"id":615038,"date":"2026-04-18T12:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T12:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/615038\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T12:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T12:34:13","slug":"dutch-mayor-finds-no-basis-to-ban-kanye-west-from-netherlands-concerts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/615038\/","title":{"rendered":"Dutch Mayor Finds No Basis to Ban Kanye West From Netherlands Concerts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFollowing concert cancellations in London<\/a> and Poland<\/a> and a postponement in France,<\/a> it appears Ye\u2019s shows will go on as scheduled in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile pressure is mounting from members of parliament and the public to ban Ye (formerly Kanye West<\/a>), who\u2019s slated to perform at Gelredome Stadium in Arnhem on June 6 and June 8, for his antisemitic rhetoric, Arnhem Mayor Ahmed Marcouch doesn\u2019t see a legal basis to ban him from entering the Netherlands and performing.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tExplore\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

See latest videos, charts and news<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMembers of Parliament have the power to make laws, so instead of constantly posting all kinds of messages on X, they can also limit behavior they deem undesirable by law,\u201d Marcouch told Dutch outlet NRC,<\/a> while previously stating he found West\u2019s past antisemitic remarks \u201cdisgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe explained that the process of approving West\u2019s permits to perform in the Netherlands is still in motion as of Friday (April 17).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWithin the framework of the law, the mayor should not pass judgment on the content of a cultural activity. That concerns freedom of expression,\u201d he added. \u201cWhat I can look at are the permit applications for the two concerts. They are currently being processed\u00a0as we speak. This concerns, among other things, safety and public order. If the organization meets the requirements of the permit, then we simply have to grant that permit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier in April, minister Van den Brink explained that there\u2019s \u201cno legal basis\u201d to ban West from entering the Netherlands to perform based on his previous statements. \u201cBased on what is currently known to me, I have no indication that an entry ban may apply to this,\u201d he said, according to RTL News<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tEssentially, Mayor Marcouch agreed with the minister and that would only change if laws are adjusted or West continued to make antisemitic remarks.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMaking racist and antisemitic statements is already a punishable offense. But he has to make them first. Now it concerns someone who did something in the past and, for that reason, would not be allowed to come to the Netherlands,\u201d he added. \u201cRegarding that, the Minister rightly said, \u2018There is no legal basis for that.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMayor Marcouch said that the public statements are for naught unless there are legal adjustments or a change in Ye\u2019s behavior.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI observe that Members of Parliament want something and call upon the Minister to do something, while the Minister says, \u2018I have no legal basis to deny that man entry.\u2019 If the Minister comes to that conclusion after all the indignation and calls from the House, then you shouldn\u2019t start shouting again that someone is not allowed to come,\u201d the mayor stated. \u201cThen you have to create a legal basis so that the Minister can do those kinds of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continued: \u201cI am also pleased that in our constitutional state, as a citizen, you are not dependent on the arbitrariness of a mayor or any other authority. That the law prevails,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

\n\tWest was denied a travel visa by the U.K. government, which led to the cancellation of Wireless Fest<\/a>. As backlash mounted from French authorities, Ye took it upon himself to postpone a June concert<\/a> slated for Marseille\u2019s Stade V\u00e9lodrome in France. <\/p>\n

\n\tOn Friday (April 17), A rep for Silesian Stadium in Chorz\u00f3w, Poland, where West was set to perform<\/a> on June 19, told\u00a0Wyborcza<\/a> that \u201cthe concert will not take place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPer the\u00a0Yeezy website,<\/a> Ye still has concerts scheduled for New Delhi, Istanbul, the Netherlands, Italy, Madrid and Portugal later this year.<\/p>\n

\n\tWest is still dealing with the fallout from his antisemitism and hate speech in recent years, which included selling a swastika T-shirt and releasing a song titled \u201cHeil Hitler.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLooking to work his way back into the public\u2019s good graces, Ye issued an\u00a0apology in\u00a0The Wall Street Journal<\/a>\u00a0in January, which saw him address the Jewish and Black communities, and West met with a rabbi<\/a>\u00a0in November 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the music front, Yeezy released his\u00a0Bully\u00a0album<\/a>\u00a0on March 28, which debuted at No. 2 on the\u00a0Billboard 200<\/a>. The Chicago native returned to the stage in the U.S. with two SoFi Stadium shows on April 1 and April 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following concert cancellations in London and Poland and a postponement in France, it appears Ye\u2019s shows will go…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,9056,136,9057],"class_list":{"0":"post-615038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-genre-hiphop","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-music-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}