Kanye West's Russia shows officially cancelled after weeks of uncertainty

Kanye West’s planned concerts in Russia have officially been cancelled after weeks of uncertainty surrounding the rapper’s proposed performances in St Petersburg.

West, who now goes by Ye, had been scheduled to perform at the Gazprom Arena in St Petersburg on October 10 and 11. The shows would have marked one of the biggest performances by a Western artist in Russia since the country invaded Ukraine in 2022.

However, uncertainty grew after Gazprom Arena said in August that it had not signed a rental agreement with the concert promoters, meaning the venue could not host the performances.

Concert organisers Say Agency later said they were working to resolve the issue with the stadium. The Moscow-based agency has now confirmed that the shows will not go ahead.

"The Ye concerts in St Petersburg will not be able to take place on the scheduled dates," Say Agency said in a post on Telegram, adding that it had made the decision with "sincere regret".

The agency said it would release a further statement about the project's status and its future plans.

Gazprom Arena had also acknowledged receiving complaints about West's proposed performance.

The planned shows had faced criticism in Russia over West's previous antisemitic and pro-Nazi remarks. The rapper has apologised for his past comments, saying he had "lost touch with reality" as a result of his bipolar disorder.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was among those who criticised the planned concerts, pointing to West's previous "glorification" of Adolf Hitler. In 2025, West sold T-shirts featuring a swastika and released a song titled Heil Hitler.

The planned performances also faced criticism from some pro-war bloggers in Russia, who questioned whether the country should host an American artist while the United States provides financial and military support to Ukraine.

West has not publicly commented on the cancellation.

The rapper returned to the stage for his first major US concert in more than five years in Los Angeles in April and has since performed in countries including Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands.

The cancelled Russia concerts are also part of a wider series of disrupted West performances. Last summer, he was scheduled to headline London's Wireless Festival, but organisers cancelled the event after he was barred from entering the UK. His shows have also previously been cancelled in Poland, Italy and France.