Kanye West’s St. Petersburg concerts drifted into chaos

On Monday of last week, August 17, the Russian program agency Say Agency shared with its followers on the messaging service Telegram the information that West would perform in St. Petersburg on October 10 and October 11 at the Gazprom Arena.

The program agency’s Telegram channel began to be flooded with messages, excited emoticons and jokes that the rapper just came to St. Petersburg and not Moscow. Say Agency reported that West’s concert sold about 100,000 tickets in two days. The capacity of the arena is just under 70,000 people.

No it’s been a long time since the whole concert started to look uncertain in the Russian media. Already on the same day, a screenshot circulated on another Telegram channel, which seemed to be from the gig organizer’s contract terms. According to it, the event organizer reserves the right to change the performer to another – and in that case the ticket price would not be refunded.

You can imagine that many people got angry because the concert organizer rushed to announce that same evening that Kanye West cannot be replaced at the festival where he is the headliner.

This one on Monday of the week, the venue of the concert, Gazprom-arena, announced that it has never been the organizer of the event and that it has not entered into a lease agreement for Kanye West’s concert with the program agency.

“Therefore, the concert cannot be organized at our venue,” the arena announced.

On Tuesday, August 25, the program office appeased those who bought tickets on their channel. It said it was trying everything to make West’s gigs happen.

At the time of writing the article, tickets for West’s gig were still on sale.

Kanye West is not only against the wind in Russia, but also in many Western countries. The background is the anti-Semitic and racist statements he previously shared on social media. The artist’s clothing brand West also sold a t-shirt with a swastika last year.

West has tried to apologize for the statements he made over the years by blaming them for bipolar disorder. This has not been enough, and the rapper has not been able to come to Britain for a gig, for example.

West had applied for a travel permit to the country to perform at the Wireless festival in London. There was no permission. The then Prime Minister Keir Starmer said West should never have been accepted as a performer at Wireless.

Now even the people in power in Russia seem to oppose West’s entry into the country. Fontanka newspaper from St. Petersburg tellsthat the Gazprom Arena received a call from Moscow recommending the cancellation of the concert.

Even Russian politicians are excited to campaign with Kanye West. Member of Parliament of the Russian Parliament or Duma Nikolai Novichkov called on the rapper to support Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. A Duma member went even further Vitali Milonovwho suggested that West could perform traditional Russian songs on stage.

West has performed this year from EU countries in Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands. Meanwhile, Britain, Italy, Poland, Switzerland and France are refused or about to refuse from the artist the opportunity to perform on his soil.

However, the rapper has had successful gigs in former Soviet Union countries. In Tbilisi, Georgia, Ye pulled an online magazine in June According to Medusa to an audience of 70,000 people for the biggest concert in the history of the country. The rapper has also performed in Kazakhstan’s Almaty and Albania’s Tirana during the summer.

According to Meduza, the concert in Tbilisi was part of the Georgian government’s Starring Georgia tourism promotion campaign. According to media sources, a lot of money also flowed into Almaty from the rapper’s performance.

I guess it’s satisfying for a robbed rap legend to perform in front of enthusiastic fans in countries where global stars are a rarity.