Sydney (AFP) – Australia has cancelled US rapper Kanye West’s visa over his song glorifying Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, the government said Wednesday. The 48-year-old musician, who has legally changed his name to Ye, released “Heil Hitler” on May 8, the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
West — whose wife Bianca Censori is Australian — has been coming to Australia for some time because he has family in the country, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said. “He’s made a lot of offensive comments. But my officials looked at it again once he released the ‘Heil Hitler’ song and he no longer has a valid visa in Australia.”
Burke said the rapper’s cancelled visa was not intended for holding concerts. “It was a lower level, and the officials still looked at the law and said: You’re going to have a song and promote that sort of Nazism — we don’t need that in Australia,” he told public broadcaster ABC. Asked if it was sustainable to bar such a popular figure, the minister said: “I think what’s not sustainable is to import hatred.”
But he said immigration officials reassess each visa application.
– ‘Importing bigotry’ –
Australian citizens have freedom of speech, Burke added. “But we have enough problems in this country already without deliberately importing bigotry.” Kanye West’s “Heil Hitler” song stirred public opposition last week in Slovakia when it was announced he would be playing a concert there in July. More than 3,000 people signed a petition against West’s performance in the Slovak capital.
The rapper — a vocal supporter of US President Donald Trump — is “repeatedly and openly adhering to symbols and ideology connected with the darkest period of modern global history,” two groups behind the petition said. “Kanye West’s concert in our city and our country is an insult to historic memory, a glorification of wartime violence and debasement of all victims of the Nazi regime,” the petition read.
In the “Heil Hitler” clip, dozens of Black men — wearing animal pelts and masks, and standing in a block formation — chant the title of the song, as West raps about being misunderstood and about his custody battle with ex-wife Kim Kardashian. The song ends with an extract of a speech by the Nazi dictator.
West has also publicly endorsed fellow rapper and music mogul Sean Combs, who has been tried in New York for alleged sex trafficking and racketeering. The jury in that case is considering its verdict.
© 2024 AFP
