Kanye West blocked from entering Australia over Hitler song
The controversial track came months after the rapper, also known as Ye, made several antisemitic posts online — including declaring 'I love Hitler' and calling himself 'a Nazi' on X (formerly Twitter).
While those earlier remarks did not lead to immediate action, Home affairs minister Tony Burke revealed that his department had cancelled West's valid visa after the song was released in early May.
'If someone argued that anti-Semitism was rational, I would not let them come here,' Burke said, while bringing up West's case.
'[West] has been coming to Australia for a long time… and he's made a lot of offensive comments. But my officials looked at it again once he released the Heil Hitler song, and he no longer has a valid visa in Australia.'
'It was a lower-level visa, and the officials still looked at the law and said if you're going to have a song and promote that sort of Nazism, we don't need that in Australia,' Burke told ABC News. 'We have enough problems in this country already without deliberately importing bigotry.'
Ye has longstanding personal ties to Australia. He married Bianca Censori, an Australian architect, in December 2022, and has visited the country frequently.
Burke declined to specify when exactly the visa was cancelled. Ye's team has not responded to requests for comment. It was also not clear if West has been permanently banned from Australia.
This is not the first time Australia has blocked entry over controversial speech. In October 2024, US conservative influencer Candace Owens was also denied a visa. At the time, Burke remarked: 'Australia's national interest is best served when Candace Owens is somewhere else.'
Despite global backlash, Heil Hitler amassed millions of views shortly after its May 8 release. Ye later attempted damage control by releasing a reworked version of the track titled Hallelujah, swapping references to Nazism with lyrics referencing Christianity.
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