Kanye West performs to 118,000 in Turkiye despite bans elsewhere

ISTANBUL: US rapper ‌Kanye West, who has been barred from performing in several countries due to past antisemitic comments, drew ​more than 100,000 fans to a concert in Istanbul on Saturday night.
West, also known as Ye, has faced a wave of cancelations across Europe this summer following years of antisemitic remarks, including statements praising Adolf Hitler and the release of content using ‌Nazi imagery.
In ‌his first appearance in ​Europe ‌since ⁠2014, ​and his ⁠first in Turkiye, Ye performed for two hours in Istanbul’s Ataturk Olympic Stadium to an audience of 118,000, state-run Anadolu Agency said.
Among the audience were fans from Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Russia, Poland and ⁠the Middle East, Anadolu said.
The 48-year-old rapper ‌is set to ‌perform in the Netherlands on ​June 6 and ‌8. Ye has faced a global backlash, not ‌least for his release of “Heil Hitler,” a song promoting Nazism. In April, Britain denied Ye entry on grounds that his presence would not be ‌conducive to the public good, forcing the cancelation of a planned appearance ⁠at ⁠the Wireless Festival in London.
Later that month, he also postponed a show in Marseille after reports that the French government had sought to block it, and a concert in Poland was also subsequently canceled. In January, Ye took out a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal renouncing his past admiration for Hitler and apologizing for his ​behavior, which ​he attributed to an undiagnosed brain injury and untreated bipolar disorder.