Two planned St. Petersburg concerts featuring American rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, have been officially canceled, event organizers confirmed on September 30.
Ye was scheduled to perform two concerts in St. Petersburg on October 10 and 11, which would have made him the biggest Western artist to perform in Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Ye’s concerts in St. Petersburg will not be able to take place on the scheduled dates,” Russia-based event organizer Say Agency said in a statement on the evening of September 30.
Say Agency did not provide a reason for the cancellation and said more information would be presented in an upcoming “official statement.” Ticket holders will be refunded, the agency said.
You haven’t commented on the canceled shows.
Prior to this announcement, there had been conflicting reports about whether the concerts would take place in St. Petersburg.
The Gazprom Arena, where Ye was scheduled to perform, said in a statement on August 24 that the venue “has not signed any stadium rental agreement for the event.”
“Such an agreement does not exist,” Arena said, despite promoting the concert on social media. “As a result, the concert cannot take place in our venue.”
The event organizer contradicted these claims the following day, assuring ticket holders that the concert would go ahead as planned.
Local media in St. Petersburg claimed that senior government officials had not approved the concert plans. When Ye’s concert dates were announced, Russian conservative politicians expressed outrage over the rapper’s past comments glorifying Nazism, the Moscow Times reported.
Russian law enforcement officials have reportedly opened a preliminary investigation into the event’s organizers for fraud, pro-Kremlin media outlet Kommersant reported.
Ye, who has won more than 20 Grammy Awards, is one of the most famous rappers in the world.
The artist has been at the center of controversy since 2022, when he tweeted a series of anti-Semitic statements. He then released a song called “Heil Hitler” in 2025, which was banned on most platforms and resulted in his Australian visa being revoked.
The rapper took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year, in which he apologized for his past behavior and anti-Semitic comments.
“I am neither a Nazi nor an anti-Semite,” he said.
Several dates on Ye’s European tour were canceled this summer and he was barred from entering the UK despite being due to headline a festival in the country.
Rumors that Ye might perform in Russia began circulating in 2024, when the rapper visited Moscow to celebrate a fashion designer’s birthday.
After the large-scale invasion of 2022, most Western artists stopped performing in Russia, with major labels withdrawing from the country or suspending operations. A handful of artists have still chosen to perform in Russia, including rapper DaBaby and singer Akon. Jason Derulo performed in Moscow in 2025, and returned in June 2026 at the end of his European tour.
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