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Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, will perform two shows in St Petersburg this October, becoming the most well-known western star to play in Russia since its invasion of Ukraine four years ago.
The artist has attracted controversy in recent years, with his antisemitic outbursts and expressions of sympathy towards nazism increasingly overshadowing his music and making some countries and venues uneasy about hosting his tour.
He is set to perform on 10 and 11 October at St Petersburg’s Gazprom Arena.
Russian fans rushed to secure tickets after the shows were announced on Monday. Nearly all of the most expensive tickets, costing upwards of $1,850, were snapped up within hours, according to the concerts’ website. By the evening, the cheapest tickets, priced at about $105, had also sold out.
Ye had been rumoured to be planning a performance in Russia for some time. Speculation intensified in 2024, when he travelled to Moscow to attend the birthday celebrations of Gosha Rubchinskiy, the Russian fashion designer and longtime collaborator with the rapper.
As well as a series of antisemitic remarks, Ye has drawn outrage through his embrace of Nazi imagery, even selling T-shirts bearing swastikas and releasing a song titled Heil Hitler.
He has since tried to rehabilitate his image, taking out a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal apologising for his antisemitic behaviour and discussing his struggles with mental health. “I am not a Nazi or an antisemite,” he wrote. “I love Jewish people.”
But the apology has done little to quell the backlash. Ye has faced resistance to performing in several European countries, with planned concerts in the UK, France and Italy cancelled and calls elsewhere for him to be barred from performing.
He has found a more receptive audience elsewhere. A record-breaking concert in Istanbul drew 118,000 fans, while 70,000 came to watch him in Tbilisi. Earlier this month, he also performed a sold-out show in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
His St Petersburg dates are also likely to draw pushback within Russia, where conservative activists have increasingly sought to sever the country’s ties with western cultural influence, and where expressions of support for nazism can carry lengthy prison sentences.
The politician Nikolay Novichkov has already called for an investigation into Ye’s past remarks praising Hitler, including his 2022 claim that there were “good things” about the Nazi leader. Novichkov also told the Russian outlet Ostorozhno Novosti that the concerts should be cancelled unless the singer publicly expresses “moral support for Russia and the special military operation”.
Ye’s visit could nevertheless offer a propaganda coup, bolstering the Kremlin’s efforts to show that Russia remains connected to the outside world despite sweeping sanctions and calls for cultural boycotts.
A trickle of western artists have performed in Russia in recent years, including Lil Pump, Flo Rida, and Jason Derulo.
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