The American rapper Kanye West – who has changed his name to Ye – has been denied a visa to Australia after the release of his song ”Heil Hitler”, which is blocked on Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube, but can be found on X.
The news about West was revealed by Australia's Interior Minister Tony Burke during an interview in ABC's program ”Afternoon Briefing” on Wednesday. Burke was asked about the visa withdrawal for an Israeli-American tech profile who wrote “islamophobia is rational”.
Most visas that have been withdrawn under this paragraph have concerned people who wanted to hold public speeches. The only one I can think of that did not concern public opinion formation – but where we still withdrew the visa – was Kanye West, said Burke.
Ye, whose wife Bianca Censori comes from Melbourne, had traveled to Australia for a long time and has family there, but according to Burke, Ye has made “many offensive statements that my officials reviewed again after he released the song 'Heil Hitler', and he no longer has a valid visa to Australia”.
When Burke was asked if it is “sustainable” to maintain the ban considering international concerts, he replied:
I think what is not sustainable is to import hate. Every visa application is reviewed by my officials every time. I do not change how the law works, but even for the lowest type of visa, when my officials reviewed it, it was withdrawn after the launch of that song.
