ISTANBUL, May 31 (Reuters) – U.S. 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 cancellations 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 Turkey, 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 cancellation 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 cancelled.
In January, Ye took out a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal renouncing his past admiration for Hitler and apologising for his behaviour, which he attributed to an undiagnosed brain injury and untreated bipolar disorder.
(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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