Kanye West's Australian visa cancelled over Hitler song

After the release of his controversial song 'Heil Hitler', American rapper Kanye West has been blocked from entering Australia.

The minister of the Australian Home Affairs department, Tony Burke, said that West's visa had been revoked over the glorification of Adolf Hitler in his latest track.

His song was condemned widely and has also been removed from most platforms. West has also stated he identifies as a Nazi and shared a number of anti-Semitic comments on social media.

In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, minister Burke said, "If someone argued that anti-Semitism was rational, I would not let them come here."

"He has been coming to Australia for a long time… and he's made a lot of offensive comments. But my officials looked at it again once he released the Heil Hitler song, and he no longer has a valid visa in Australia," Burke explained.

In 2023, Australia first contemplated blocking West's entry into the country. Jason Clare, the education minister at the time, stated that West's "awful" remarks about Hitler and the Holocaust could result in his exclusion.

Since visa applications are reevaluated every time they are submitted in compliance with Australian law, it is still unclear if West has been barred from Australia entirely. Bianca Censori, whom West married in 2022, was born in Melbourne and still has family there.

The news of West's ban from Australia comes shortly after a petition was launched in Slovakia to prevent the rapper from performing at Rubicon festival in Bratislava on July 20. The protestors called his upcoming act "a humiliation of all victims of the Nazi regime".