Australia says Kanye West must be fully vaccinated to perform

Australia’s prime minister said rapper Kanye West must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to perform concerts in their country.

“The rules are you have to be fully vaccinated,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said at a news conference on Saturday, Reuters reported. 

“They apply to everybody, as people have seen most recently. It doesn’t matter who you are, they are the rules,” Morrison added. “Follow the rules — you can come. You don’t follow the rules, you can’t.”

The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported on Friday that West, who legally changed his name to “Ye,” is planning to launch a series of stadium concerts in March. 

West, who announced the February release date of his forthcoming album “Donda 2,” said in an interview last year that he has received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

However, West had previously referred to COVID-19 vaccines as “the mark of the beast” in an interview with Forbes magazine in 2020. 

Morrison’s warning to West follows the controversy surrounding Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic, who ultimately had his visa denied for being unvaccinated against COVID-19, preventing him from competing in the Australian Open. 

Australia has been battling a recent wave of virus infections driven by the new omicron variant, with officials recording two million cases in the past month.