Kanye West claims to have drawn 118,000 fans to İstanbul’s Atatürk Olympic Stadium on Saturday night in his first concert in Turkey, staging one of the largest stadium performances in Europe in recent years as he faces bans and cancellations in several countries over remarks deemed to be antisemitic and including Nazi imagery.
Ye fka Kanye West to his fans during his sold out concert at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Turkey 👀🇹🇷
"I just want to tell y’all, we just broke the record of 118,000, largest stadium performance of all time." pic.twitter.com/NGdWoCy52r
— The Beat Boulevard (@tbboulevard) May 30, 2026
West, the US rapper and producer who now uses the name Ye, performed for nearly two hours at the concert, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency. The concert drew fans from Turkey, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Russia, Poland and countries across the Middle East, Anadolu said.
West told the crowd from the stage that the show had broken a record, but the stadium’s normal seating capacity is at about 75,000. The reported attendance would have required event-specific arrangements, including use of the field.
The official event page listed the concert as “YE Live in İstanbul” at Atatürk Olympic Stadium and said the event ran from 3 p.m. Saturday to 1 a.m. Sunday.
Anadolu reported that the stadium reached capacity hours before the concert. West opened with “Father” and closed with “Stronger,” performing from a spherical stage set up at the center of the venue. The set also included “Runaway,” “Power,” “Flashing Lights,” “Heartless,” “Black Skinhead,” “All The Love” and “Homecoming,” according to Anadolu.
The concert was livestreamed on West’s official YouTube channel, Anadolu said.
The İstanbul show came as West faces scrutiny across Europe. He has been barred from or lost planned performances in several countries following years of statements that include praise for Adolf Hitler and content using Nazi imagery.
In April Britain denied West entry on the grounds that his presence would not be conducive to the public good, forcing the cancellation of a planned appearance at the Wireless Festival in London. A show in Marseille was later postponed after reports that the French government had sought to block it, and a planned concert in Poland was also canceled.
Italy also banned planned July concerts by West and Travis Scott, citing public order and security concerns, including the risk of protests.
West is still scheduled to perform in the Netherlands on June 6 and 8 at GelreDome in Arnhem. Dutch lawmakers had urged the government to bar him, but Dutch Migration Minister Bart van den Brink said there were no legal grounds to deny him entry. The Dutch House of Representatives had earlier passed a motion calling on the government to seek to refuse West entry or urge organizers to cancel if that was not possible.
West has faced a backlash over the 2025 release of “Heil Hitler,” a song widely condemned as promoting Nazism. He later placed a full-page advertisement in The Wall Street Journal renouncing his past admiration for Hitler and apologizing for his behavior, which he attributed to an undiagnosed brain injury and untreated bipolar disorder.
The İstanbul concert showed that the backlash has not erased West’s draw among fans. It also put Turkey outside the approach taken by some European governments, allowing one of the year’s most controversial live music events to proceed before a record-breaking crowd.