Kanye West to perform in the Netherlands despite bans elsewhere

Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Feb. 9, 2020. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

AMSTERDAM -- U.S. rapper Kanye West, who has been barred from performing in several countries due to past antisemitic comments, is set to hold concerts in the Netherlands next month, after its migration minister said there were no legal grounds to deny him entry.

Dutch lawmakers had urged the government to bar West, who is now known as Ye, citing his past remarks and expressions of admiration for Nazism and Adolf Hitler.

“Solid grounds are needed to bar people from entering (the Netherlands). We have not found those in the analyzes that were conducted,” Bart van den Brink said on Friday. “His past statements are not, at this moment, a reason to deny him entry.”

The 48-year-old rapper will perform at concert venue GelreDome in the city of Arnhem, about 100 km (62 miles) southeast of Amsterdam, on June 6 and 8. They would be Ye’s first European performances since 2014, GelreDome said on its website.

Arnhem authorities said no permits to protest the concerts had so far been requested.

Ye has faced a growing global backlash, including for his release of “Heil Hitler,” a song promoting Nazism.

In April, Britain denied Ye entry on the grounds his presence would not be conducive to the public good, forcing the cancellation of his planned Wireless Festival appearance in London.

Later that month, he also postponed a Marseille show after reports the French government had sought to block it, and a concert in Poland was also subsequently cancelled.

In January, Ye took out a full-page ad in U.S. newspaper the Wall Street Journal renouncing his past admiration for Hitler and apologizing for his behaviour, which he attributed to an undiagnosed brain injury and untreated bipolar disorder.

(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Suban Abdulla; Editing by Joe Bavier)