Kanye West has run into further touring troubles as Italy becomes the latest country to block the rapper’s concerts.
Italy has banned two shows involving West and fellow US musician Travis Scott, which had been due to take place on 17 and 18 July in the northern city of Reggio Emilia.
Salvatore Angieri, the local prefect, made the decision to cancel the events on grounds of public order and safety, including the potential for protests.
West, 48, is yet to address the news on his social media, where he has previously spoken about cancelled dates. The Independent has contacted a representative of Scott for comment.
This is the latest blow to West’s touring schedule, which has come up against significant disruption in certain regions due to his past anti-semitic and pro-Nazi comments.
Last month, Swiss football club FC Basel blocked a concert that was due to take place at their club home, St Jakob-Park, in June.
Representatives for the club told Reuters that the show was “not in accordance with our values” and had decided not to proceed following a review.
West was also due to perform at the Silesian Stadium in Chorzów next month in an event that has since been cancelled by the venue “due to formal and legal reasons” after Poland’s culture minister called his scheduled appearance “unacceptable”.
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“We are talking about an artist who has publicly made antisemitic views, downplayed crimes and profited from selling swastika T-shirts,” , Marta Cienkoska said. “These are not ‘controversies’. This is a deliberate crossing of boundaries and the normalisation of hatred.”
The concert would have been West’s first performance in Poland in 15 years.
In April, West’s three-night headline slot at Wireless Festival in London caused huge controversy before it was blocked by the UK government who denied the rapper entry to the country.
Shortly after, his June gig in Marseilles, France was postponed “until further notice”, with French media reporting at the time that Interior Minister Laurent Nunez was seeking to ban the concert.
“After much thought and consideration, it is my sole decision to postpone my show in Marseille, France until further notice,” West said in a post on X.
In a follow-up statement, the “Jesus Walks” artist continued: “I know it takes time to understand the sincerity of my commitment to make amends.
“I take full responsibility for what’s mine but I don’t want to put my fans in the middle of it. My fans are everything to me. Looking forward to the next shows.”
West is set to perform in the Netherlands next month. Despite protests from Dutch lawmakers, migration minister Bart van den Brink said on Friday (29 May) that there are no legal grounds to deny him entry.
“Solid grounds are needed to bar people from entering [the Netherlands]. We have not found those in the analyses that were conducted,” van den Brink said. “His past statements are not, at this moment, a reason to deny him entry.”
West has been seeking to re-enter the mainstream since the beginning of the year, when he apologised for his anti-semitic behaviour in a full-page advert he took out in the Wall Street Journal in January.
Addressing “Those I’ve Hurt”, he attributed his actions to untreated bipolar-1 disorder, writing that he had “lost touch with reality”.
