Ye offers to meet Jewish community as his right to enter UK for festival is put under review
LONDON (AP) — A senior member of the British government said Tuesday that Ye should “absolutely not” play the Wireless Festival as the performer offered to meet members of the U.K.’s Jewish community and show he has changed since provoking outrage with antisemitic statements.
U.K. authorities are considering whether to ban the rapper formerly known as Kanye West from entering Britain, where he is booked to perform in front of around 150,000 revelers July 10-12 at the open-air festival in London’s Finsbury Park.
“His permission to enter the U.K. is under review as we speak,” said Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman, Tom Wells. “All options remain on the table.”
Organizers are under mounting pressure from sponsors and politicians to cancel the gigs by the rapper, who has drawn widespread condemnation for making antisemitic remarks and voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler.
Last year, he released a song called “Heil Hitler” and advertised a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website. The 48-year-old apologized in January with a letter, published as a full-page advertisement in The Wall Street Journal. He said his bipolar disorder led him to fall into “a four-month long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life.”
Wireless sponsors Pepsi, Rockstar Energy and Diageo have pulled out of the festival since Ye was announced as the headliner, and Starmer called the booking “deeply concerning.”
In a statement Tuesday, Ye, who changed his name in 2021, said he “would be grateful for the opportunity to meet with members of the Jewish community in the U.K. in person, to listen.
“I know words aren’t enough — I’ll have to show change through my actions,” he said. “If you’re open, I’m here.”
Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said the group would be willing to meet with the musician if he pulled out of the festival.
“The Jewish community will want to see a genuine remorse and change before believing that the appropriate place to test this sincerity is on the main stage at the Wireless Festival,” Rosenberg said.
Organizer Festival Republic stood by Ye. In a statement issued Monday, managing director Melvin Benn urged people to offer the performer “forgiveness and hope.”
“We are not giving him a platform to extol opinion of whatever nature, only to perform the songs that are currently played on the radio stations in our country and the streaming platforms in our country and listened to and enjoyed by millions,” the statement said.
U.K. Health Secretary Wes Streeting dismissed the organizers’ statement as “absurd” and said Ye should “absolutely not” perform at Wireless.
Benn acknowledged that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood had the power to revoke Ye’s visa to come to Britain.
“If she does, she does, and then the issue is over,” he told the BBC on Tuesday.
A representative for Ye didn’t reply to a request for comment.