Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, will perform two high-profile stadium shows this fall in St. Petersburg, Russia, organizers said on Monday. The concerts would be the first by a major Western performer in the country since its invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago.
The shows — set for Oct. 10 and 11 at Gazprom Arena, St. Petersburg’s largest stadium — will take place amid ongoing controversy surrounding the artist, who in recent years has become better known for his antisemitic and pro-Nazi statements than for his music.
And they are also likely to draw pushback within Russia, where many conservative activists argue that the country should shed the last vestiges of Western culture. (Vitaly Milonov, a conservative Russian lawmaker, suggested that Ye should perform traditional Russian songs to fit in. “Maybe after this he’ll stop his disgusting antics and become a normal person,” Milonov said in a video statement.)
Still, the news produced a burst of excitement among fans. Almost all of the most expensive tickets, priced at more than $1,850, sold out within hours of the announcement on Monday, according to the concerts’ website. The cheapest tickets, priced at about $105, were all gone by evening in Russia.
Yunis Teimurkhanly, the owner of the Helvetia, a major St. Petersburg hotel, said he had experienced “an explosion of bookings, calls and messages” after the concerts were announced. “My entire address book went live at once,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Although American rap stars have long played concerts in Russia, most of their shows ceased after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Despite the Western sanctions imposed on Russia because of the war, however, a handful of Western acts such as DaBaby and Tyga played in Moscow last year, and Jason Derulo performed there this summer.
Ye has been rumored to perform in Russia for some time, most recently in 2024, when he attended a Russian fashion designer’s birthday party.
The rapper successfully returned to live performance in Los Angeles in April when he staged his first full live show in the United States in five years. But despite his apology early this year for his antisemitic behavior, Ye’s attempts to tour Europe in recent months have caused uproar because of his history of making antisemitic and pro-Nazi statements.
In April, the British government announced that it was barring Ye from entering the country to headline a major London festival, saying that his presence “would not be conducive to the public good.”
Since then, his concerts in France, Italy and Poland have been canceled amid similar uproar, although the rapper has performed large shows in the Netherlands, Turkey and Albania, illustrating differing attitudes toward freedom of speech across Europe.
Ye has three upcoming U.S. dates in Chicago and New Orleans beginning later this month.
