Kanye West Must Be Fully Vaccinated If He Wants To Take 'Donda 2' To Australia
Kanye West brought plenty of goodwill his way when he pulled off his Free Larry Hoover benefit concert in December 2021. But for Ye to take subsequent moments like that across the globe, there’s one country where he’s going to have to adhere to the rules.
During a news conference on Saturday (January 29), Australian prime minister Scott Morrison reiterated no one was exempt from the country’s restrictions regarding COVID-19, including artists such as Ye.
“The rules are you have to be fully vaccinated,” Morrison said, according to the Independent. “They apply to everybody, as people have seen most recently.”
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Morrison recently found himself in international headlines following the deportation of tennis star Novak Djokovic. Despite being unvaccinated, Djokovic was seeking a medical exemption to participate in the Australian Open. Despite two legal hearings, he wasn’t cleared and had to leave the country.
“It doesn’t matter who you are, they are the rules,” Morrison continued. “Follow the rules, you can come. You don’t follow the rules, you can’t.”
Ye, who admitted to contracting COVID-19 in 2020, previously alluded to his vaccination status during his Drink Champs interview last November.
“I traveled to Paris, like, a couple weeks ago and I had to go through Lisbon because you can go through Lisbon without being vaccinated,” he said. “I only have one of the shots, so I’m half-ccinated.”
Ye’s desire to tour across the globe arrives as he plans to release a mammoth follow-up to his Donda album. After announcing the album would arrive on February 22 and would be executive produced by Future, producers such as Digital Nas outlined what Ye’s vision was going into the sequel to his Grammy Award-nominated 10th studio album.
“These are the directives for the album,” Digital Nas told Rolling Stone. “If it cannot be played at a funeral, childbirth, graduation, a wedding, it will not be on our record. We learned a lot from DONDA 1. We learned what hit. We learned what was sticking. So we took from there. It has to be able to be played at four major moments in people’s lives. That’s crazy, right?”
Fans will have to see if Ye’s vaccination status affects stadium performances across the globe for the impending album. His next scheduled performance is set to take place in April at Coachella.