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The concert in Portugal went ahead despite pressure for it to be cancelled, as has happened on his tour in other countries. Australia even refused the US rapper a visa. The same happened in the United Kingdom. Other European countries, including France, Poland, Italy and Czechia, have cancelled West’s tour, also known as Ye.
ADVEReadNOWISEMENT
ADVEReadNOWISEMENT
In Portugal, the Israeli ambassador was the most prominent public voice calling for the rapper’s concert to be cancelled, but that did not happen. The show at the Estádio do Algarve went ahead on Friday and, according to what has been reported by various media outlets (source in Portuguese) and on social networks, everything went smoothly.
A winner of 24 Grammys (source in Portuguese), Kanye West is one of the most awarded artists in Grammy history, alongside Jay-Z, the most decorated hip-hop artist. West took to the stage at the Estádio do Algarve 45 minutes after the scheduled start time.
Standing on top of a giant globe on the pitch, Ye performed well-known tracks such as “Stronger”, “Gold Digger”, “American Boy” and “I Can’t Wait”, invited his daughter North West on stage for a duet and did not make any controversial remarks or speeches, as he has done in recent years.
This was the third time the US rapper has performed in Portugal. His debut came in 2006, at Cool Jazz in Oeiras, and the second in 2011, at the Sudoeste Festival in Zambujeira do Mar.
Kanye West’s international tour, which is promoting his 12th album, “Bully”, has been surrounded by controversy, largely because of the antisemitic hate speech he has previously adopted and his declarations of support for Nazism.
“Someone who has glorified Hitler, promoted antisemitism and claimed that slavery was a choice, a phrase that deeply offended millions of descendants of the victims of slavery. This is not provocation, it is hate speech,” said the Israeli ambassador in Lisbon, Oren Rozenblat, when he took to social media to call for the concert to be cancelled, arguing that such a show would be a “disgrace for Portugal and for the Portuguese”.
In a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal (source in Portuguese), the rapper sought to make amends by apologising for the antisemitic comments he made in the past. West described his behaviour as “a four-month manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behaviour” and said he “lost touch with reality”.
The Algarve concert was never the subject of public or media outrage in Portugal. The organiser of the event in Portugal told Euronews it was ‘a non-issue’, driven by ‘misinformation’, even suggesting it was turning into ‘a political issue’ when it should not be. “It is a musical event that is going to take place,” said the CEO and co-founder of Raya Culture in April. “It would only become a [political] issue if the authorities identified a national threat to public order, which is not the case,” he stressed.
But Kanye’s stance is not confined to antisemitism or hate speech.
The US rapper has shared, on social networks and at public events, episodes involving his wife, Bianca Censori, that have been regarded as deplorable and sexist.
Among the many controversies, Kanye “Ye” West has been at the centre of several recent legal cases, including complaints from former staff accusing him of abuse, as well as a lawsuit filed by a former assistant who accuses him of sexual assault and alleges that he strangled a model on the set of a music video in 2010.
After the concert in the Algarve, Kanye West is due to perform in Kazakhstan, at the Central Stadium in Almaty (14 August), before returning to the United States for two concerts. The first is in New Orleans on 28 August, followed by Chicago on 3 September 2026.