Kanye West blocked from travelling to UK | Global News Podcast

The British government has refused permission for Kanye West, now known as Ye, to travel to the UK after a growing backlash to his planned performance at a London music festival this summer. The organisers of the Wireless Festival have now said the entire event has been cancelled.

The American rapper has caused outrage by making a string of antisemitic, racist and pro-Nazi comments over the last several years. Last year he released a song titled “Heil Hitler” and sold t-shirts emblazoned with a swastika.

In January, Ye issued an apology in which he said he had bipolar disorder and a brain injury, which had affected his behaviour. Organisers of the Wireless Festival said that while “antisemitism in all its forms is abhorrent”, he should be “offered some forgiveness” and given a second chance. Ye’s critics, including many in the Jewish community, disagree.

We speak to the BBC’s music correspondent Mark Savage.

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