
West has been banned from Australia, Great Britain, and Italy, and authorities in France, Poland, and Switzerland have also blocked concerts he planned to hold in their countries in recent weeks.
By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner
US Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) on Thursday urged concert promoters to cancel Kanye West’s upcoming June 26 and 28 shows at the publicly owned Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, citing the rap singer’s troubling history of promoting antisemitism and Nazism.
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, West, who is now known as Ye, has released a song titled “Heil Hitler,” tried to sell shirts emblazoned with a swastika, and made a series of antisemitic comments on social media.
Over a period of two years, he repeatedly praised Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany who oversaw the murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust, and even declared at one point, “Im a Nazi [sic]” and “I love Hitler.”
His conduct should disqualify him from being platformed, Scott wrote in a letter to the Tampa Sports Authority.
“He has openly praised Nazis, called himself one, and slandered Jews across the world,” the letter said.
“West’s remarks are vile and a slap in the face to our state’s Jewish community. It is troubling that a stadium supported by taxpayer dollars would openly subsidize an event led by an artist known for pushing this dangerous, hateful rhetoric, especially with Florida having one of the largest Jewish populations in our country.”
Scott added that the decision to cancel West is not politically fraught because he already has been “condemned by political figures across the political aisle.”
West has said that he plunged into the depths of antisemitic conspiracy and paranoia during a prolonged episode of bipolar mania in which he lost control of his mental faculties, causing radioactive outbursts, hyper-sexual behavior, and a series of disreputable acts.
West apologized for his behavior in January 2026, writing in a paid advertisement published in the Wall Street Journal that he “lost touch with reality” and “gravitated toward the most destructive symbol [he] could find, the swastika, and even sold t-shirts bearing it.”
He added, “I’m not asking for sympathy or a free pass, though I aspire to earn your forgiveness.”
West’s mea culpa preluded the announcement of a comeback tour scheduled to support his latest artistic offering, an 18-track album titled “Bully” which music critics panned after its release in March.
Rolling Stone magazine, which is widely regarded as a foundational text of the music industry, described “Bully” as “lifeless overall” with a sonic texture which sounds “like decades of his music fed into a computer program.”
Regardless of the album’s quality, a new concert tour could translate into generating millions of dollars the rapper needs to regain some of the estimated $2 billion in net worth he lost after his corporate sponsors and business partners walked away amid his antisemitic outbursts.
West has been banned from Australia, Great Britain, and Italy, and authorities in France, Poland, and Switzerland have also blocked concerts he planned to hold in their countries in recent weeks.
Last week, however, he drew more than 100,000 fans to a concert in Istanbul and is set to hold shows in the Netherlands this month.
Despite West’s public apology for his rampant antisemitism, Jewish advocacy groups have questioned his sincerity.
“We remain deeply skeptical of transactional apologies that appear timed to clear corporate and venue hurdles ahead of a new album launch,” the American Jewish Committee said in January.
“True repentance in Judaism requires concrete actions to repair the damage done, not just a public relations maneuver.”
Meanwhile, the Creative Community for Peace (CCFP), a nonprofit entertainment organization, noted that West’s admitted capriciousness is reason to doubt that he will not resume his antisemitic activities again.
“We have seen this script play out before,” the group said.
“Ye makes deeply offensive, antisemitic remarks, faces massive commercial backlash, and then issues a blanket apology just as he prepares to ask the public to buy his music or attend his shows. This looks less like genuine introspection and more like a calculated business strategy to force streaming platforms, promoters, and stadiums back to the negotiating table. The entertainment industry should look at his actions, not his advertisements.”
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