“Hip-hop visionary, cultural icon and controversial genius YE will perform July 20, 2025 exclusively at the Rubicon Festival in Bratislava. It will be his only confirmed live performance in Europe in 2025 — and ever first show in Slovakia in history,” organizers confirmed on the event’s website on Monday. “Rubicon Festival is raising the bar for European festivals to a whole new level.” His participation in the festival has sparked anger. More than 3,000 people have already signed a petition asking the festival to cancel the performance of the rapper, who is formerly known as Kanye West. The authors of the petition point out that Ye has in recent years repeatedly and openly adopted the symbolism and ideology associated with Nazi Germany, having written, for example, “I am a Nazi” and “I love Hitler” on social media platforms. “He trivializes the crimes of the totalitarian dictatorial regime and the war atrocities that also affected the Slovak population,” the petition reads. The petition refers to Ye’s latest track, “Heil Hitler,” which was released on May 8 — the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. The song references the Nazi salute which was used while Adolf Hitler was in power. The single’s artwork resembles a swastika, and the song ends with a lengthy sample from a Hitler speech. As the petition also mentions, the song is banned in Germany. Nazi symbols prohibited in Germany Within Germany, Ye’s video cannot be seen among his posts on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Changing one’s location to the United States with a VPN makes the post visible.
via dw: Kanye to headline Slovakia festival despite pro-Hitler song
siehe auch: Petition launched to stop Kanye West appearing at Slovakian festival The rapper is booked to headline the Rubicon festival in Bratislava, which protesters have called ‘a debasement of all victims of the Nazi regime’ A petition has been launched calling on the mayor of Bratislava to prevent Kanye West – legally known as Ye – from headlining a festival in Bratislava, calling the planned appearance “an insult to historic memory, a glorification of wartime violence and debasement of all victims of the Nazi regime”. The Rubicon festival in the Slovakian capital claimed that they had secured an exclusive performance by the “hip-hop visionary, cultural icon and controversial genius” for mid-July. More than 3,500 people have signed the petition, endorsed by representatives from organisations such as Peace for Ukraine and Cities for Democracy, calling for West’s removal from the bill, accusing him of “repeatedly and openly adhering to symbols and [an] ideology connected with the darkest period of modern global history”. The petition calls West “one of the world’s most famous antisemites” and cites him selling a T-shirt depicting a swastika on his website.