Kanye West's only scheduled European performance this year has been canceled amid controversy over his latest song, "Heil Hitler." The Rubicon hip-hop festival in Bratislava, Slovakia, originally set for July 18-20, announced late Wednesday that the event has been scrapped "due to media pressure and the withdrawal of several artists and partners," the Guardian reports. Organizers stopped short of directly blaming West, who now goes by Ye or Ye Ye, but the decision follows a wave of public backlash.
The uproar began after Ye's May 8 release of "Heil Hitler," on the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany's defeat. The song, which closes with an audio clip of a 1935 Hitler speech, was quickly banned in Germany and pulled from major streaming services. However, it continued to circulate—especially on X, Elon Musk's social media platform. News of West's appearance at Rubicon sparked a petition signed by thousands, calling the booking "an insult to historic memory" in a country where over 70,000 Slovak Jews were murdered during the Holocaust
The Rubicon festival had billed itself as Slovakia's top hip-hop gathering, with Offset and Sheck Wes slated to headline alongside West. The news comes shortly after Australia canceled West's visa, citing his recent lyrics; his wife, Bianca Censori, is Australian. The BBC reports that weeks after the release of "Heil Hitler," Ye claimed he was "done with antisemitism" and released a new version called "Hallelujah," with the Nazi references removed.
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