Kanye West Announces Concert Performances In Russia

Ye – the rapper formerly known as Kanye West – has announced he will play two live shows in Russia later this year.

On Monday, tickets for Ye’s live dates at St Petersburg’s Gazprom Arena, which has a capacity of 70,000, sold out mere minutes after going on sale.

BBC News pointed out that the controversial Jesus Walks musician is the most prolific Western performer to play in Russia since the country’s invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago.

As well as the likes of Akon, DaBaby and Tyga, chart-topping singer Jason DeRulo performed two shows in Russia last year, returning for another earlier this year.

Over the course of his time in the spotlight, Ye has found himself at the centre of controversy on countless occasions, which was exacerbated in the early years of the Trump presidency, when he repeatedly voiced his support for the US leader.

He later released a unanimously-derided single titled Heil Hitler, resulting in his Australian work visa being cancelled.

At the beginning of this year, Ye – who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder a decade ago – issued a public apology for his behaviour in a full-page magazine ad, addressed “to those I’ve hurt” with his antisemitic outbursts, claiming they occurred during a months-long manic episode in which he had “lost touch with reality”.

Following this, he attempted to stage a string of comeback shows around Europe, but this hit a number of stumbling blocks, including when his headlining shows at Wireless festival had to be cancelled due to the home office blocking his travel to the UK (resulting in the whole event being axed).

Ye’s tour dates in France, Poland, Italy and the Czech Republic were eventually pulled, too, although he did go on to perform in Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Turkey and Albania.