As Kanye “Ye” West was likely basking in the success of his comeback this past week — which included his first LP in four years, Bully, debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and receiving mostly favorable reviews, two record breaking sold-out performances in L.A. being lauded for their groundbreaking stage design, and in the U.K.. a strong reaction to the global star booking three nights at the upcoming Wireless Festival this July — a cascade of brands dropping out of the London event has created a crack in what nearly looked to be a smooth return to the mainstream for the popular but problematic rapper.
West’s return to the U.K. was announced last week by the London festival’s organizers, who made the unprecedented move of slotting him in as headliner for all three nights. A strong and divisive response followed, with many arguing that the beloved summer event should not be headlined by a man known for hate speech and antisemitism. Over the weekend, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the decision, triggering a cascade of companies to abandon the event and its organizer to rush to defend his decision.
“It is deeply concerning that Kanye West has been booked to perform at Wireless despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism,” Starmer said.
On Monday, Pepsi did not mention West headlining all three nights of the high-profile Wireless Festival in its statement but his controversies appear to have been the dealbreaker, and the company — the event’s largest sponsor — said it was officially pulling out of its deal with the organizers. Diageo — parent company of Guinness, Baileys, Smirnoff, Cîroc and Wireless partners Captain Morgan and Johnnie Walker — also announced Monday that it would withdraw support, with Captain Morgan and Johnnie Walker serving as key sponsors of the event. Neither company provided specific reasoning for abruptly leaving the festival, which is still billed as “Pepsi MAX Presents Wireless.”
“We have informed the organizers of our concerns and, as it stands, Diageo will not sponsor the 2026 Wireless Festival,” a spokesperson for Diageo told CNN.
By Monday afternoon, PayPal was also reported to be pulling out of its sponsorship.
In late January, following years of sporadic and seemingly unprompted antisemitic outbursts — including praise of Adolf Hitler and declarations that he is a Nazi — West placed a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal retracting a number of statements he made on social media over the past several years. In the mea culpa, the mercurial rap mogul attributed his past behavior to a brain injury, while declaring, “I love Jewish people.”
“I lost touch with reality. Things got worse the longer I ignored the problem. I said and did things I deeply regret,” he wrote. “In that fractured state, I gravitated toward the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika, and even sold T-shirts bearing it.”
In the U.K., the primary driver of the current outcry — on top of West’s antisemitic posts over the years — is the release last year of a track titled “Heil Hitler,” along with his sale of T-shirts on his Yeezy website featuring a swastika. Reports have emerged that the U.K. Conservative Party is now urging the British home secretary to refuse West a visa, preventing him from performing his first shows in the country in 11 years, on the grounds that the U.K. reserves the right to bar individuals whose presence is not “conducive to the public good.” Meanwhile, Board of Deputies of British Jews president Phil Rosenberg said it would be “absolutely the wrong decision” to allow the rapper to perform, and the Campaign Against Antisemitism has called for him to be banned from the country.
If it seems like the Brits are piling on, keep in mind they wouldn’t be the first to block West from entry — Australia previously canceled the rapper’s visa over the “Heil Hitler” song and his past antisemitic remarks.
Yet despite mounting trouble for the Bully tour rollout across the pond, stateside news has been more than rosy. Bully sold a strong 56,000 physical copies in its first week and logged over 98 million on-demand streams in the same period. At his two SoFi Stadium gigs in Los Angeles, West quite literally stood on top of the world, thanks to a stunning, state-of-the-art stage designed with visual artist Aus Taylor. The victory-lap setlist featured career-spanning favorites — “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” “Heartless,” “Power” — alongside new material. The two nights reportedly smashed venue records, grossing $33 million and placing him at the top of the list of potential global touring acts in the coming year.
So the new-new Kanye appears to be fairly bankable — a return, in some ways, to the old Kanye, whom Adidas once partnered with to produce highly sought-after Yeezy sneakers before the relationship collapsed in 2022 in the wake of his antisemitic remarks, costing the company over $250 million in short-term profit and West his billionaire status.
Should the reported commercial success of West’s latest endeavors be grounds for forgiveness in the United States, despite the splashy, marketing-timed apology — one that doesn’t align with at least one of the many lawsuits West currently faces, in which his legal team argues that alleged antisemitic insults directed at a former Yeezy staffer were part of his creative process, not the result of bipolar disorder or a decades-old brain injury? Or, as Callie Ahlgrim argues in a Business Insider analysis, are West’s fans simply more resilient after 20 years of his volatility?
“His brand has long revolved around embracing volatility and ego (or, in his words, ‘dragon energy’), so when he acts volatile and egocentric, his fans don’t see it as a betrayal,” she writes.
But if that’s the case, why wouldn’t that same dynamic apply in the U.K.? It’s unlikely to be a lack of fan support — Bully debuted at No. 3 there this week, and, as in L.A., fans seemed ready to show up.
To understand the divergence, one must look at the broader cultural context. In the U.K., a recent rise in antisemitic incidents has brought renewed national attention to the issue. Just last week, two men and a teenager were arrested for allegedly torching ambulances operated by a Jewish community service in northwest London.
While the U.K. reserves the right to deny entry on “public good” grounds, the U.S. does not typically impose such bans based on speech. Performing a concert that may include offensive expression is largely protected under the First Amendment.
On Monday afternoon, Wireless Festival promoter Festival Republic’s managing director, Melvin Benn, chimed in with a statement in support of West. “Having had a person in my life for the last 15 years who suffers from mental illness, I have witnessed many episodes of despicable behavior that I have had to forgive and move on from. If I wasn’t before, I have become a person of forgiveness and hope in all aspects of my life, including work. What Ye has said in the past about Jews and Hitler is as abhorrent to me as it is to the Jewish community, the Prime Minister and others that have commented and — taking him at his word — to Ye now also,” he wrote.
“Ye’s music is played on commercial radio stations in this country. It is available via livestreams and downloads in this country without comment or vitriol from anyone and he has a legal right to come into the country and to perform in this country. He is intended to come in and perform. We are not giving him a platform to extol opinion of whatever nature, only to perform the songs that are currently played on the radio stations in our country and the streaming platforms in our country and listened to and enjoyed by millions.
“Forgiveness and giving people a second chance are becoming a lost virtue in this ever-increasing, divisive world and I would ask people to reflect on their instant comments of disgust at the likelihood of him performing (as was mine) and offer some forgiveness and hope to him as I have decided to do.
The Wireless Festival is scheduled to take place in London’s Finsbury Park from July 10–12.
The Hollywood Reporter reached out to a representative for West but did not immediately hear back on Monday.
