Australian PM issues strict warning to Kanye West over rapper’s vaccination status ahead of tour

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said Kanye West will have to be fully vaccinated if he wants to perform in the country.

Prime minister Morrison made the announcement on Saturday (29 January) amid media reports that the hip-hop artist – now known as Ye – was planning to perform across Australia in March 2022.

Discussing Ye’s forthcoming tour down under, Morrison told a news conference that the country’s vaccine rules apply to everybody “as people have seen most recently”, referencing the situaton involving tennis superstar Novak Djokovic.

Djokovic was withheld from competing in the ongoing Australian Open after a court ruled that the government’s decision to cancel his visa over Covid-19 rules and his unvaccinated status.

“It doesn’t matter who you are, they are the rules,” Morrison told news media on Saturday, adding, “Follow the rules – you can come. You don’t follow the rules, you can’t.”

On Friday (28 January), Sydney Morning Herald reported that Ye planned to play stadium concerts in Australia, citing industry sources.

The “Donda” singer’s representatives were not immediately available for comment.

Ye’s vaccination status is presently unknown.

During a 2021 interview on social media, he said he had received one vaccine dose, but in a 2020 interview with business magazine Forbes, he had compared getting vaccinated with “the mark of the beast”.

Australia, which has one of the highest rates of vaccination globally, has been battling an explosive wave of infections in the past month driven by the fast-spreading Omicron variant, with about 2 million cases recorded.

Before that, it had reported just 400,000 cases since the pandemic first hit nearly two years ago.

Previously, Australia’s Trade and Tourism Minister Dan Tehan said Immigration Minister Alex Hawke would take a decision on Ye’s visa, adding that Hawke would consider the singer’s “application like he does for other visa applications”.

Additional reporting by Reuters.