Because of his current flirtation with Nazism and a string of different outrageous conduct, Kanye West isn’t welcome in lots of locations nowadays. Final yr, he publicly complained about being blackballed by US venues, and he’s reportedly confronted related challenges overseas — a music pageant in Slovakia not too long ago canceled his look after hundreds signed a petition demanding his elimination. In reality, since 2023, the one nations the place West has managed to stage dwell occasions are South Korea and China.
On Saturday, he returned to China for what was billed as his first full-length live performance in practically a yr. However in keeping with native media stories, many attendees on the 70,000-capacity Shanghai Stadium have been left confused and annoyed by West’s antics. Per The Global Times, West took the stage greater than 40 minutes late—a delay that probably didn’t sit nicely with many attendees, as punctuality is very vital in Chinese language tradition and late begins are sometimes seen as an indication of disrespect. The stage design featured minimal manufacturing and lighting, with the rapper performing alone in the course of an enormous oval. It was additionally raining on the time, which impacted the sound high quality on the out of doors venue.
Because the evening went on, West appeared to expertise points with the DJ, inflicting him to skip and restart a number of songs. He repeatedly walked on and off the stage, ultimately disappearing altogether close to the tip of the present—leaving solely the backing observe to play in his absence. On the plus facet, he did seem to self-censor his most anti-Semitic lyrics.
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Some followers in attendance — who paid upwards of $400USD for tickets — ultimately bored with West’s antics and started chanting for a refund. The present additionally grew to become a trending matter on Chinese language social media, with one consumer saying they’d “by no means seen such a poorly organized live performance.”
Shanghai shoppers DO NOT PLAY.
Huge crowd was shouting REFUND after Ye was late 40 minutes to his live performance. https://t.co/vK75CurL0O pic.twitter.com/7ZFt3ynuv2
— 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐖𝐓𝐘𝐌𝐄 🇨🇳🇺🇸⚜️ (@DetroitShowtyme) July 12, 2025
Ye, Kanye West carried out “Flashing Lights” in Shanghai, China yesterday🔥 pic.twitter.com/IK8gitp9er
— Gregor Estevan (@gregor_estevan) July 13, 2025
