Topline
Kanye West performed to a stadium crowd of more than 100,000 fans in Turkey on Saturday, his first performance in Europe in more than a decade, as the rapper attempts a comeback following immense backlash to his long history of virulent antisemitic remarks, which derailed his career.
Key Facts
West performed inside Istanbul’s Ataturk Olympic Stadium for roughly two hours to about 118,000 fans on Saturday, the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency reported, marking West’s first appearance in Europe since 2014 (the concert was also livestreamed on YouTube).
Rapper Travis Scott reportedly joined West on stage during the event.
His concert follows the cancellation of a tour stop in Marseille, France, in April after Marseille Mayor Benoît Payan refused to have the city serve as a “showcase for those who promote hatred and unapologetic Nazism,” and the cancellation of the U.K.’s Wireless Festival after it picked West as a headlining act.
What To Watch For
Whether West’s upcoming tour stops are canceled. He is scheduled to perform in the Netherlands on June 6 and June 8, despite backlash from Dutch officials. Dutch Deputy Prime Minister Bart van den Brink said last week that “solid grounds” are needed to bar people from entering the country, noting West’s “past statements are not, at this moment, a reason to deny him entry.”
Tangent
West reportedly claimed during his performance in Istanbul that his concert was the “largest stadium performance of all time.” It’s not immediately clear whether West set a new record: Zach Bryan set the record for the largest ticketed audience in U.S. history with just over 112,000 people in attendance for a concert in 2025. Free concerts have drawn much larger crowds, including Lady Gaga’s performance in Rio de Janeiro last year, which reportedly had an audience of 2.5 million. French composer Jean-Michel Jarre has claimed for years that his 1997 concert in Moscow had the world’s largest audience at 3.5 million.
Key Background
West’s widely condemned antisemitic outbursts began in 2022, when he claimed in a leaked interview with Tucker Carlson that “Planned Parenthood was made… with the KKK to control the Jew population.” He later wore a “White Lives Matter” shirt, openly praised Hitler and made comments on social media, proclaiming he would never apologize for “MY JEWISH COMMENTS” and that “IM A NAZI.” West ran a Super Bowl ad in the Los Angeles area last year for his fashion brand website yeezy.com, showcasing a $20 plain white T-shirt with a black swastika as the only item available for sale. West apologized for his outbursts in a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal in January, pointing to a decades-old brain injury while requesting “patience and understanding” as he claimed to be “committed to accountability, treatment and meaningful change.” West had held billionaire status before his antisemitic remarks led to Adidas ending its relationship with the rapper.
