Kanye West officially kicked off his long-awaited return to Europe on May 30 with a concert event at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, opening the evening with King in front of what, according to him, was the largest paying turnout ever recorded for a concert in a stadium.
During the show, the rapper told fans that 118,000 tickets had been sold, claiming he had set the all-time attendance record for a performance in a paid stadium. “I just want to tell you one thing: We just broke the record with 118,000 people, the biggest stadium performance of all time,” Ye told the crowd.
There is still no independent official confirmation from the stadium, the Turkish authorities or bodies that certify attendance records. As for historical comparison, several articles claim that the previous record for a stadium concert with tickets sold belonged to Zach Bryan with approximately 112,000 spectators at Michigan Stadium. If the 118,000 figure was correct and certified, Kanye would actually have surpassed it.
The show took place using the same Earth-inspired set mounted on a rotating platform seen at concerts at SoFi Stadium earlier this year. Positioned in the center of the parterre, the circular structure housed a dome-shaped installation that projected a detailed rotating globe, creating an immersive visual centerpiece for one of the most ambitious productions of his recent career. From a musical point of view, the setlist alternated the great classics of his repertoire with songs by BULLYpublished March 28.
The Istanbul concert marked Ye's first major performance in a European stadium since 2015. The event took on even more significance after a long string of canceled or blocked European dates in the UK, France, Switzerland, Poland and Italy were skipped due to ongoing controversy surrounding Ye's public statements in recent years, making the Istanbul stop a crucial test of his ability to attract audiences internationally.
