Albania spends $4.9 million on Ye concert as anti-government protests intensify

Critics say that Prime Minister Edi Rama’s government of turning a publicly funded Ye (former Kanye West) concert on Saturday into a political spectacle that could help overshadow weeks of anti-government protests in Tirana.

The government approved 400 million lek, about $4.9 million, to help finance the July 11 concert by Ye. The money will come from the state reserve fund and be transferred to the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sports for what the government describes as a cultural-touristic event aimed at promoting Albania’s international image.

But Albanian writer and public commentator Fatos Lubonja has told OCCRP’s partner Shteg.org that the decision fits what he described as a “bread and circus” model of government: spending public money on entertainment while the country faces deeper problems.

“Perhaps he is also doing it to counter this protest, to stage a big show so people can say, ‘Look how many people gathered there,’” Lubonja told Shteg.org.

Lubonja questioned why the state would give millions of dollars to a private company for a commercial artist who, in his view, does not contribute to the country’s cultural development. He called the funding a scandal and compared it to other public spending decisions under Rama that critics have portrayed as opaque or politically driven.

The government has defended the intervention as an investment in tourism. In an explanatory memorandum reviewed by Shteg.org and OCCRP, officials argued that the concert should not be treated only as a private event because it is expected to attract foreign visitors and benefit hotels, transport companies, restaurants, and other service providers.

The memorandum identifies Redcloud as the company that asked the ministry on July 3 for urgent financial support, warning that the event was at risk because of additional costs and that ordinary legislative procedures could not be completed before the concert date. It also says about 70% of tickets sold had been purchased by foreign citizens.

Rama has also defended the spending publicly.The prime minister explained that the payment was necessary to avoid embarrassing Albania in front of nearly 25,000 foreign visitors who had already bought tickets, and claimed the event could generate at least 100 million euros in revenue through tourism and accommodation bookings.

Journalist Elsa Demo also described the concert funding as part of a longer-running political model that treats culture as spectacle. She told Shteg.org that such events can work as political tools, encouraging admiration for those in power while pulling people away from civic engagement.

Economist Zef Preçi challenged both the legal basis and the urgency of the decision, noting that the concert had been publicly announced more than two months earlier. Even if the state wanted to support a private event, he argued, the money should have been allocated through a competitive and transparent procedure rather than an emergency legal instrument.

The controversy comes as Tirana has seen daily protests for more than a month. The demonstrations grew out of opposition to a luxury coastal resort project linked to Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and later widened into broader protests over protected areas, coastal development, and alleged government corruption. OCCRP previously reported that Albanian anti-corruption prosecutors froze assets tied to the resort project as public protests mounted, and later found that court documents from a drug trafficking investigation overlapped with the resort land probe. Rama denies corruption allegations.

The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sports and Redcloud did not respond to Shteg.org’s questions about the reasons for the funding or how the public money would be spent.

West remains a controversial figure internationally.He has been barred from performing in several European countries this summer following remarks praising Adolf Hitler and content featuring Nazi imagery.