Netherlands clears Kanye West for two June concerts in Arnhem

The Netherlands has cleared Kanye West to perform two concerts at GelreDome stadium in Arnhem on June 6 and June 8, with Dutch officials saying they found no legal grounds to bar the rapper despite calls from a majority of the Dutch House of Representatives and Jewish groups to cancel the shows.

Asylum and Migration Minister Bart van den Brink announced the decision on Friday. “You need clear reasons to bar people from your country,” he said. The mayor of Arnhem, Ahmed Marcouch, separately confirmed that concert permits had been granted, describing West’s past statements as “reprehensible” while saying decisions must follow legal and public order rules regardless of the controversy surrounding the artist.

The June 8 show in Arnhem coincides with West’s 48th birthday, making it his first birthday concert in Europe in more than a decade. The Netherlands dates will be his first European live performances since 2014 and his first concerts in the Netherlands since 2013.

The clearance comes after a cascade of European bans that has reshaped West’s touring plans across the continent. The British government barred him from entering the country in April, forcing the cancellation of a planned festival headline appearance. France’s interior minister was reported to be seeking to block a Marseille performance, prompting a postponement. Poland’s Stadion Śląski cancelled a June 19 concert after the country’s culture minister described the planned show as promoting Nazism. Swiss football club FC Basel turned down an approach about hosting a West concert.

The bans reflect the international backlash that has followed West’s statements glorifying Adolf Hitler, his release of a song titled Heil Hitler, the promotion of swastika-branded merchandise on his website, and sustained antisemitic commentary that he has attributed to a manic episode brought on by bipolar disorder. In January 2026, he took out a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal saying “I am not a Nazi or an antisemite” and “I love Jewish people.”

The Netherlands decision is the first European government to formally clear him for concert performance since the wave of bans began. West is also scheduled to perform in Istanbul on May 30, Reggio Emilia in Italy in July, Tirana in Albania in July and Prague in July, suggesting his European tour continues in markets that have not taken formal blocking measures.

His US commercial performance has remained strong despite the European difficulties. Three sold-out nights at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles generated approximately $33 million in revenue, and his Tampa, Florida concert on June 26 generated over one million virtual ticket queue entries within hours of presale opening.