Amid a series of concert cancellations and others going ahead, it was on Tuesday that the European Jewish Congress (EJC) called for the cancellation of US rapper Kanye West’s concert, scheduled for 7 August at the Algarve Stadium.
“We call on the competent authorities, public bodies and organisers to cancel this event and take all appropriate measures to ensure that antisemitism, the glorification of Nazism and hate are not rewarded with public platforms, legitimacy or support,” reads a statement published on the EJC’s official website.
The EJC says it is aligned with the Jewish Community of Lisbon (CIL) “in expressing its deep concern regarding the concert of Ye (Kanye West) at the Algarve Stadium”.
Despite the wave of cancellations across Europe linked to West’s antisemitic statements, shows are still scheduled for this Saturday in Istanbul, for July in the Netherlands, and for 7 August in the Algarve Stadium.
The CIL issued a statement on 6 May calling on the municipalities of Faro and Loulé, as well as the government, not to grant any public support to Kanye West’s concert in Loulé. In comments to Lusa, CIL president David Botelho regretted the provision of “a public infrastructure for a profit-making event” by a “figure who has a sinister discourse, which other countries have deemed unacceptable”.
“What is expected from the State is that there is no support whatsoever, no granting of assistance, that the State at central, regional and local level does not finance or provide public support, that it does not use public resources of any kind to support this event,” he explained. This is an “unacceptable normalisation of something that must not be normalised, namely hate speech,” Botelho continued.
In the note published on Tuesday, the EJC says Portugal should “follow the example” of other countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Poland, Switzerland and, more recently, Italy, where “public authorities and organisers” have chosen to “cancel or distance themselves from events involving Ye”.
Kanye West, who changed his stage name to Ye in October 2021, is currently on a world tour including several European dates, following the release of his album Bully in March.
Meanwhile, several of his concerts have already been cancelled or postponed across Europe. Kanye West was even banned from entering the United Kingdom in early April due to antisemitic remarks, leading to the cancellation of the Wireless Festival, where he was due to headline.
“At a time when antisemitism is rising across Europe and just days after Lisbon’s synagogue was targeted in an antisemitic act of vandalism,” allowing Kanye West’s concert to go ahead in Portugal “sends a deeply worrying message,” the European Jewish Congress said.
Last week, local authorities in Arnhem, Netherlands, authorised a Kanye West concert this month, separating the decision to give the green light from any personal agreement with the artist’s statements.
Arnhem’s mayor, Ahmed Marcouch, acknowledged that the decision may be difficult to accept, but explained that Dutch law limits municipal discretion and that mayors cannot make decisions “based solely on personal or social disapproval” of the rapper’s positions.
On Saturday, Turkey hosted the artist’s first concert on European soil since 2014. Around 118,000 people attended the show at Istanbul’s Olympic Stadium.
The antisemitic, racist and pro-Nazi rhetoric of Kanye West has overshadowed recent years of the musician and producer’s career. Cancellations of his performances this year have followed increasing public and media pressure. In January, these cancellations led him to publish an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal in which he apologised for behaviour he regrets and says “destroyed his life.”
