Mark Savage
Music correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

To some, it seemed like this decision was inevitable from the moment Kanye West was announced as a headliner of Wireless last week.

The star’s history of racist and antisemitic comments was too severe, and his apology too recent, for people to accept he had turned a corner.

In its statement, Wireless said that “multiple stakeholders were consulted in advance” of the booking - without identifying those stakeholders.

Does that include the local council, who award the festival’s licence, or the Metropolitan Police, who help secure the event?

And what does the cancellation mean for the future of Wireless? Can the festival repair its relationships with sponsors?

And what was its contractual arrangement with Kanye West? Could he be owed a cancellation fee, or was his pay dependent on being able to perform?

Those are questions that will have to be answered in the coming days.

Jacob Phillips
Live reporter

Image source, PA Media

Wireless Festival has been cancelled after the government blocked US rapper Kanye West from travelling to the UK.

The prime minister has insisted he should never have been invited in the first place after causing outrage over a string of antisemitic comments.

The rapper, one of the biggest figures in hip-hop history, took out a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal in January this year, apologising for his antisemitic comments and said his bipolar disorder meant he had "lost touch with reality".

But several major sponsors withdrew their support for the festival after West was announced as the headliner for all three days.

The decision to block him has been broadly welcomed by politicians and Jewish groups. The Board of Deputies of British Jews says it hopes the "lessons can be learned across the industry", while one charity has called banning West "the sensible outcome" to a bruising episode for British Jews.

Some fans have also agreed with the decision, but some who were planning to see him at Wireless have voiced their disappointment.

We're now closing our page, but before we go, a final thought from our music correspondent, Mark Savage.

Image source, PA Media

Kanye West, now known as Ye, has caused outrage over the last few years for a string of antisemitic, racist and pro-Nazi comments.

But the controversial figure has remained one of the 21st century's most successful artists.

Raised in Chicago, West began by producing tracks for US rapper Jay-Z before making his own music.

A near fatal car crash in 2002 left him with a wired jaw and inspired his breakthrough single Through the Wire. He has gone on to win 24 Grammy Awards.

In one of the most viral moments of all time, West famously interrupted a Taylor Swift acceptance speech during the 2009 Video Music Awards, insisting the accolade should have gone to Beyonce.

In 2012 he told the Los Angeles Times he wanted to "pick up where Steve Jobs left off" and expanded his empire. He created his own trainer for Adidas and his brand Yeezy in 2013.

In 2014 West married reality television icon Kim Kardashian and the pair had four children. The couple filed for divorce in 2021.

West attempted to run for president in 2020 and received 60,000 votes out of an estimated 160 million.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer posted on X earlier saying that Kanye West "should never have been invited" to headline the Wireless festival, adding that the government "stands firmly" with the Jewish community.

Before the announcement that the festival was cancelled, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said West was "guilty of appalling antisemitic and pro-Nazi comments" and urged the Home Office to refuse his visa.

Also speaking before West’s visa was refused, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage warned against banning the rapper from entering the country but described his previous comments as "Nazism".

"I wouldn't buy a ticket, I wouldn't recommend anyone buys a ticket. But I think if we start banning people from entering the country because we don't like what they say, I worry where that ends up," he said.

Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney urged festival organisers to "reflect" on their decision to book West, after initially telling reporters: “We live in a free country and people are going to say things".

The SNP later said Swinney had been unaware of the outrage caused by West and the calls for him to be banned, adding that the first minister "utterly condemns [West's comments] and stands against antisemitism in all its forms".

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said he was glad the government had “listened and done the right thing by banning Kanye West from coming to the UK to peddle his hatred".

Andrée Massiah
BBC News

Otis Haughton from Reading is a fan of Kanye West’s music and tells the BBC he was looking forward to seeing him live for the first time.

“I’m pretty disappointed that I won’t see Kanye as I would have liked to have seen the artist that shaped me,” he says.

“He is my favourite artist of all time and his level of production is incredible.

"I’ve been seeing clips from the LA shows and he’s definitely in a better headspace currently which swayed my decision to go to Wireless.

"I paid £450 for my ticket at the fourth release of the presale. I don’t condone the stuff he was saying and releasing when he was having his ‘episodes’, but he says he wants to make amends.

"The cancellation of Wireless shows how the festival was relying on Kanye to perform. I may get to see him somewhere else if I can but I'll wait and see.”

Image source, Otis Haughton

Image source, Getty Images

Kanye West has been seeking a return to mainstream public view after apologising for his actions in a lengthy statement published in the Wall Street Journal in January.

Last week, he played two sold-out concerts at Los Angeles' SoFi Stadium, with guest appearances from Travis Scott and Lauryn Hill.

The two nights reportedly smashed venue records, grossing $33 million, the Hollywood Reporter says.

West did not explicitly mention his history of antisemitic comments on stage, but told the audience: "Tonight we're going to put all this behind us, ain't that right LA?"

Alex Akhurst
BBC News

Image source, Rosie

One Kanye West fan tells the BBC that she did not realise the rapper's comments "were as bad as they were until right now".

Rosie, 28, booked tickets in the Wireless pre-sale last week with her partner and had just begun to look into accommodation and travel.

“I first heard his music when I was nine-years-old," she says.

"In the back of my mind I knew there was controversy with him, but I [wanted] to separate the music from the controversy.

"I looked into some of the things he's been saying after the cancellation, and I didn't realise some of the things he's said were as bad as they were until right now.

"If I'd known the depth of it before I'd booked, I might have felt differently about it.

"From a selfish point of view, I feel more resentment towards him as an artist. It's inexcusable now really."

The Board of Deputies of British Jews says "the situation could and should have been resolved much earlier".

In a statement, the president of the board Phil Rosenberg says: "It is deeply regrettable that Wireless Festival invited him in the first place and then doubled down when the Jewish community and our allies objected.

"We hope that lessons are learned across the industry. Music festivals should be places where all communities feel welcome, not venues that platform individuals with records of profiteering from antisemitism, racism and other repulsive views."

He says the board is "grateful for the support of those across the political spectrum and from other minority and faith communities", adding that it should "not be for the Jewish community alone to advocate for our safety", with all of society needed to "recognise the scourge of antisemitism and heed the concerns of Jews when problematic acts are booked."

Gideon Falter, chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), has called for an apology from the organisers of Wireless Festival following the event's cancellation.

He tells BBC News that the booking of West represented a pursuit of "profit over principle" and it was a pity that it took the government intervening for "sense to finally prevail".

Falter, who is also vice chairman of the Jewish National Fund UK, adds: "Nobody knows what would have come out of Kanye West's mouth next if you would have given him the stage at the Wireless Festival."

Regarding West's offer to meet with the Jewish community in the UK, he says the rapper should show "genuine contrition" and an offer to make amends.

Dominic Hughes
Health correspondent

In our last post we reported that in January, Kanye West apologised for antisemitic remarks he had made in the past. In part, he blamed his bipolar disorder.

Bipolar is characterised by extreme shifts in mood - from a very excited or energetic mania, to the lows of depression.

It can also lead to impulsive, sometimes reckless, behaviour.

There will be times - months or even years - when someone’s mood may be stable. But when they are in the grip of a manic episode, friends and family will often describe how their personality can change radically, leading them to say and do things that are completely out of character.

Treatments include talking therapies, but also drugs, including antipsychotics, antidepressants and mood stabilisers, such as lithium and Valproic Acid. There can be unpleasant side effects, such as weight gain, tremors, and nausea.

Some have also argued that the blunting of emotional states has a negative impact on artistic creativity.

So while the medication can be very effective, sticking with it can also be challenging.

Image source, Reuters

Over the years, Kanye West's career has frequently been derailed by impulsive outbursts, antisemitic tirades and racist statements, among other controversies. The latest furore is over his headline booking at this year's Wireless Festival.

Here are some of those significant - and, to many, offensive - moments:

• In 2016, West wrote "Bill Cosy innocent !!!!!" in a social media post, referring to the US comedian who was later found guilty of drugging and raping a woman at his Pennsylvania home in 2004 - the judgement was eventually overturned
• Two years later, West said during an appearance on entertainment site TMZ that slavery "sounds like a choice"
• In 2022, West's X account was banned multiple times following a series of offensive tweets, including an image appearing to show a symbol combining a swastika with a Jewish star
• In the same year, he appeared on a podcast hosted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and said "I see good things about Hitler"
• He also drew criticism after wearing a White Lives Matter T-shirt during Paris Fashion Week
• Last year, West was blocked from entering Australia after releasing a song titled Heil Hitler, glorifying the Nazi leader
• He had previously declared himself a Nazi, selling swastika T-shirts, prompting commerce platform Shopify to take down his web store

In January of this year, West took out a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal, apologising for his antisemitic behaviour. "I am not a Nazi or an antisemite," he wrote. "I love Jewish people." He said that as a result of his bipolar disorder, he had "lost touch with reality".

The rapper was due to play Wireless Festival as part of a European tour scheduled for this summer, having performed at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on two separate nights last week.

Kanye West is still listed to perform on several European dates on his official website, including:

• 30 May, Istanbul: Ataturk Olympic Stadium
• 6 June, Arnhem: GelreDome
• 8 June, Arnhem: GelreDome
• 11 June, Marseille: Orange Vélodrome
• 18 July, Reggio Emilia: RCF Arena
• 30 July, Madrid: Riyadh Air Metropolitano
• 7 August, Algarve: Estádio Algarve

He's also scheduled to play in New Delhi, India on 23 May.

Alex Akhurst
BBC News

A Kanye West fan tells the BBC he is "absolutely gutted" after buying tickets to Wireless Festival - and that he "didn't believe they would cancel it".

"My own personal prediction is this is the end of Wireless Festival. It's the UK's only real rap festival, so for any [fans] it’s really bad news," Daniel tells me.

Daniel goes on, calling himself "a very self-aware fan", saying he knows what West has said in the past "is definitely not OK - but I feel that people should vote with their money, and if people didn't agree with what he said, then they shouldn't buy tickets".

"I think it's fair enough [that people are upset]", he adds, "but if there's a demand, then it should go ahead."

Daniel has tickets to see Ye perform in Italy later this year.

Image source, Getty Images

Kanye West first appeared at Wireless in 2009, performing hits like Stronger and American Boy to a near-capacity crowd at Hyde Park.

His first headline appearance came five years later in 2014, performing in both London and Birmingham to mark the festival's 10th year.

Originally booked for one night in the capital, West performed two headline sets in London’s Finsbury Park on the Friday and Saturday after Canadian rapper Drake was forced to cancel due to illness.

He was reportedly booed by some sections of the Wireless crowd on the first night of the festival that year, after interrupting his own set to talk about his other projects and the media's treatment of him.

His return to Wireless this year would have been his first performance back in the UK since he headlined Glastonbury in 2015.

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The Community Security Trust, a charity which focuses on the safety and security of British Jews, says the government's decision to block Kanye West from entering the UK is a "sensible outcome to what has been yet another bruising episode for British Jews".

A statement from the charity reads:

"Preventing Ye from performing is a sensible outcome to what has been yet another bruising episode for British Jews, and ought to be entirely separate from the question of whether the festival as a whole goes ahead. Anti-Jewish hatred should have no place in society and cultural leaders have a role to play in ensuring that is the case.

"People who show genuine and meaningful remorse for previous antisemitic behaviour will always receive a sympathetic hearing from the Jewish community, but that process must come before this kind of public rehabilitation."

• As a reminder: This morning, West offered to meet the Jewish community in the UK, saying: "My only goal is to come to London and present a show of change, bringing unity, peace, and love through my music".

Image source, Reuters

We're now hearing reaction from the prime minister, who says rapper Kanye West "should never have been invited" to headline Wireless Festival.

He says in a post on X that the government "stands firmly" with the Jewish community, adding that it would not stop in its fight to defeat "the poison of antisemitism".

"We will always take the action necessary to protect the public and uphold our values."

In recent days, Starmer described the prospect of West headlining the festival as "deeply concerning".

In the days leading up to Wireless being cancelled, several major sponsors had withdrawn support from the event.

Pepsi - the festival's main sponsor - announced its decision to step back on Sunday.

Drinks giant Diageo similarly withdrew support for the event over the weekend, saying: "We have informed the organisers of our concerns and as it stands, Diageo will not sponsor the 2026 Wireless festival."

Rockstar Energy - owned by the same parent company as Pepsi - followed suit on Monday, while PayPal announced it would no longer allow its branding to be used on promotional material for the festival.

Earlier today - before Wireless was cancelled - the managing director of the festival's organiser Festival Republic said Kanye West's visa to enter the UK had been "issued in the last few days".

"He has a visa already issued to appear, to come into the country, and the home secretary may well rescind that today, I don't know," Melvin Benn told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "If she [Shabana Mahmood] does, she does, and then the issue is over in terms of his appearance."

Hours later, as we now know, the government decided to ban West from entering the UK.

During his interview with Today, Benn also said Jewish communities had decided against meeting West: "We have reached out and they've refused to meet him."

However, a Board of Deputies spokesperson told the BBC: "Neither the Board of Deputies nor, we understand, the Jewish Leadership Council has refused any request to meet with the Wireless festival organisers.

"When the Board of Deputies received a letter from Melvin Benn on 6 April, proposing to meet, in response to a letter we sent setting out our concerns, we responded positively. In any event we are clear that the invitation to Kanye West to perform should be rescinded."

Image source, Reuters

Wireless Festival was due to be held in London over three days from 10 July, with American rapper Kanye West as headliner on all three nights.

But the decision to book him came under scrutiny over antisemitic remarks he has made in the past, including titling a song Heil Hitler and declaring himself to be a Nazi.

Festival organisers defended the booking, pointing out that West - who now performs as Ye - has apologised for his past statements, which he said were due to mental ill-health.

However, earlier today, the government confirmed it would deny West a visa to enter the UK. In light of that decision, the organisers of the festival say it will be cancelled, with ticket-holders issued a refund.

We'll bring you reaction to this as it comes in.