Poland concerts canceled for Pink Floyd’s Waters after blowback to Russia war comments

Two upcoming concerts in Poland featuring Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters were recently canceled amid backlash over his comments blaming Ukraine and NATO for Russia’s invasion.

Waters, who is now a solo artist, will no longer be performing at Tauron Arena in the southern Polish city of Krakow, according to Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, which reported that Live Nation and Tauron Arena may have canceled the event.

On the singer-songwriter’s website, the Krakow concert dates previously scheduled for April 21 and April 22 are not listed.

The decision comes as Krakow city councilors are expected to vote on a resolution this week that would deem Waters a persona non grata for his comments criticizing Ukraine and the West.

A Krakow city councilmember, Łukasz Wantuch, had pushed for a boycott of Waters’s concerts, Gazeta Wyborcza reported.

Waters wrote in a Facebook post over the weekend that he did not cancel the “Krakow gigs” and laid the blame on Wantuch.

“This chap Łukasz Wantuch seems to know nothing of my history of working, all my life, at some personal cost, in the service of human rights,” Waters wrote.

“I have been looking forward to sharing my message of love with the people of Poland, something I have been doing on many tours over a career that has lasted in excess of fifty years,” he wrote.

On his latest tour, Waters has also called President Biden a “war criminal.”

Last month, the rock legend defended his controversial position on the Russia-Ukraine war.

“This war is basically about the action and reaction of NATO pushing right up to the Russian border, which they promised they wouldn’t do when [former Soviet leader Mikhail] Gorbachev negotiated the withdraw of the USSR from the whole of Eastern Europe,” he said on CNN in August.

Earlier this month, Waters sent a letter to Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska blaming “extreme nationalists” for setting “your country on the path to this disastrous war.”

In his Facebook post, Waters railed against the widespread backlash over his comments.

The singer said he was pushing for “public efforts to encourage all involved in the disastrous war in Ukraine, especially the governments of the USA and Russia, to work towards a negotiated peace…Rather than escalate matters towards a bitter end that could be nuclear war and the end of all life on this planet.”

Pink Floyd, which Waters is no longer a member of, released its first newly recorded song in three decades this year called “Hey, Hey Rise Up” featuring a Ukrainian singer. All proceeds from the song are donated to a Ukrainian humanitarian relief fund.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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