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The controversial rapper is scheduled to headline the Hellwat Festival on 18 July at the RCF Arena in the Northern Italian city of Reggio Emilia. <\/p>\n
Now, the city\u2019s Jewish community, anti-fascist groups, trade unions and politicians are calling for the gig to be scrapped.<\/p>\n
Pina Picierno, who is vice president of the European Parliament and a senior member of Italy\u2019s Democratic Party, has urged the government to intervene. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe United Kingdom denied the visa. France effectively prevented the Marseille concert,\u201d he told local newspaper La Gazzetta di Reggio<\/a>. \u201cItaly, meanwhile, is just staying idle with 68,000 tickets sold, as if nothing had happened.\u201d <\/p>\n Rosamaria Papaleo, a representative of the Italian Confederation of Workers\u2019 Unions in Emilia-Romagna, also believes the concert should not go ahead as planned. <\/p>\n \u201cIt seems quite contradictory that an artist known for his antisemitic remarks can be hosted by our city, which has always strongly advocated anti-fascist values. Anti-fascism for us is not a whim, but a value rooted in our history,\u201d Papaleo told CBS News<\/a>. <\/p>\n The union has asked Reggio Emilia\u2019s mayor, Marco Massari, to set up a meeting between West and members of the area\u2019s Jewish population over his past comments. <\/p>\n Massari has said he was \u201cdistancing himself from Kanye West\u2019s behaviour and remarks,\u201d but added that any decision regarding West\u2019s entry into the country lies with Italy\u2019s Ministry of the Interior.<\/p>\n As for Victor Yari Milani, the artistic director of Hellwatt Festival, he defended booking West, calling the festival \u201ca space for free artistic expression.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThe artist\u2019s past comments have certainly provoked a legitimate reaction, but we also want to remember that Ye formally apologised through the Wall Street Journal in January, stating that he is not a Nazi or antisemite but suffers from bipolar disorder,\u201d said Milani. <\/p>\n West\u2019s anti-Semitic remarks began in 2022, when he made a series of offensive comments on social media which ended up getting him booted off both X and Instagram. The musician was dropped by his talent agency<\/a> and fashion brands like Adidas and Balenciaga also distanced themselves from West<\/a>. <\/p>\n West went on to post a picture of KKK robes<\/a>, rescind his previous apology to the Jewish community<\/a>, declare himself \u201ca Nazi\u201d<\/a> and assert that he has\u201cdominion over his wife\u201d<\/a>. <\/p>\n In February 2025, West started selling swastika t-shirts<\/a>, and in May, he released a song titled \u2018Heil Hitler\u2019<\/a>, which praised the Nazi leader. This led him to be stripped of a visa to enter Australia<\/a> and faced with immediate arrest in Brazil<\/a>. <\/p>\n West apologised for his actions and took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal<\/a> earlier this year. He addressed his past antisemitic comments<\/a>, reflecting on a “four-month-long manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behaviour” and saying that he \u201clost touch with reality.\u201d <\/p>\n Still, many questioned the timing of his apology, considering the recent release of his new album \u2018Bully\u2019.<\/p>\n So far, the remaining EU dates for West are Turkey (30 May), the Netherlands (6 and 8 June), Italy (18 July), Madrid (30 July) and Portugal (7 August).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 23\/04\/2026 – 9:20 GMT+2 Following concert cancellations in the UK, France, Poland and Switzerland, momentum is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3854,18351,59,57,58,153004,479,1716,128,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-546076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-antisemitism","9":"tag-controversy","10":"tag-gb","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-greatbritain","13":"tag-italian-politics","14":"tag-italy","15":"tag-kanye-west","16":"tag-music","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}