Australia has canceled Ye’s visa after the rapper’s antisemitic rhetoric was cemented with a song titled “Heil Hitler.” According to the Associated Press, the Grammy winner, formerly known as Kanye West, has visited Australia multiple times over the past several years with his wife, Bianca Censori, who is from the continent.
“Heil Hitler” was released by the 48-year-old in May, along with a music video which featured a group of Black men standing in a military formation chanting “Ni**a heil Hitler! The clip also included a snippet of a speech from Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
“He’s been coming to Australia for a long time. He’s got family here. And he’s made a lot of offensive comments that my officials looked at again once he released the ’Heil Hitler’ song, and he no longer has a valid visa in Australia,” explained Home Affairs Minister Tony, per AP. “We have enough problems in this country already without deliberately importing bigotry.”
Kanye West and Bianca Censori attend the 67th Annual GRAMMY Awards on February 02, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
The Guardian reported the song has been banned on Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube. As noted by the outlet, Burke expanded on the decision to revoke Ye’s visa while ABC’s Afternoon Briefing about the same consequence for an Israeli-American tech advocate who wrote “Islamophobia is rational”.
“Most of the visas that have been cancelled under this section have been where someone was seeking to make a public speech,” Burke detailed. “The only one I can think of where it wasn’t for public advocacy – the visa – but we cancelled it anyway, would be Kanye West.”
Burke continued to explain that the “Runaway” performer’s pattern of antisemitic behavior was not ignored, adding that he “made a lot of offensive comments that my officials looked at again once he released the ‘Heil Hitler’ song, and he no longer has a valid visa in Australia.”
Kanye West attends the 67th GRAMMY Awards on February 02, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
“Every visa application gets reassessed by my officials each time,” Burke explained. “I’m not taking away the way the act operates, but even for the lowest level of visa, when my officials looked at it, they cancelled that following the announcement of that song.”
In May, shortly after the “Heil Hitler” release, Ye claimed to be “done with antisemitism.”
“I love all people,” He proclaimed. “God forgive me for the pain I’ve caused.”
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