Australia Bans Kanye West, Citing Release of Pro-Hitler Anthem
Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, dressed in a full black leather KKK outfit during his interview with DJ Akademiks that was shared on YouTube on March 31, 2025. Photo: Screenshot
Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said on Wednesday that the government had canceled the visa for rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.
“He’s been coming to Australia for a long time,” Burke said. “He’s got family here. And he’s made a lot of offensive comments that my officials looked at again once he released the ‘Heil Hitler’ song, and he no longer has a valid visa in Australia. We have enough problems in this country already without deliberately importing bigotry.”
The former billionaire hip hop mogul released “Heil Hitler” on May 8, prompting bans on multiple platforms. The video featured a group of black men chanting, “All my n—as Nazis, n—as Heil Hitler.”
In February, Ye appeared in a swastika T-shirt in an online video and defended his obsession with the Nazi symbol. He wrote in a since-deleted X post on February 21 that the swastika “shows n—as that we don’t have to be afraid of white people.”
Ye’s wife Bianca Censori was born on January 5, 1995, in Melbourne, where her family still lives. Ye had reportedly visited the country regularly as a result. After he married Censori in 2023, the Australian Jewish Association urged the government to ban him from entering.
“If someone argued that antisemitism was rational, I would not let them come here,” Burke said.
Podcaster Candace Owens, Ye’s friend and ideological ally, also received a ban from entering the country in 2024, with the government citing her history of Holocaust denial.
Australia has seen a wave of antisemitic crimes over the last eight months, with officials suspecting the involvement of foreign actors paying for offenses with cryptocurrency. On June 22, a historical synagogue in Melbourne was vandalized twice in one day with the slogans “Iran is da bomb” and “Free Palestine.”
Australia prosecutes individuals for displays of Nazi symbols and public performances of the “Heil Hitler” salute, with mandatory jail sentences ranging from one to six years.
Burke said that “if you’re going to have a song and promote that sort of Nazism, we don’t need that in Australia.”
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