BY: Denver Sean
Published 5 months ago
When Lauryn Hill and the Fugees announced a world tour — we knew it sounded too good to be true.
As we expected, the tour isn’t happening.
All tour dates were quietly removed from Ticketmaster and refund notices were issued to those who already purchased tickets late Tuesday — just three days before the tour was to begin.
via Variety:
No reason was offered to fans for the cancellation in the refund notices that went out. Reps for Hill and the tour promoter, Live Nation, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Ticketholders posted screenshots of a message they received from Live Nation stating simply, “Your event has been canceled. A refund will be on its way to your account soon.”
The tour was set to begin on Friday in Tampa, with the American leg climaxing at the Hollywood Bowl on Sept. 17 and shows in New York and New Jersey on Sept. 20-21. Other cities scheduled for shows included Atlanta, Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston and Milwaukee — 18 U.S. dates in all. After a few weeks off, the tour was then scheduled to resume in Europe with a show in Manchester, England on Oct. 12 and end in Amsterdam on Oct. 22, with gigs in London and Paris in-between.
Hill’s social feeds do not have any updates about her tour status, as of this writing. The most recent tweet on the artist’s infrequently used account on X (formerly Twitter) was at the time of the tour announcement, in late June.
It seems clear that, whatever the reason may be for calling off the dates, poor ticket sales are not the culprit. Hill and the Fugees played to full houses on arena dates last year — before the end of that tour was canceled. In a search of Ticketmaster shows on Thursday afternoon, only one show remained on sale, in Alabama, that likely had been accidentally overlooked in pulling the tour down — and a seating chart indicated that only a handful of resale tickets were available for that technically still available concert.
This marks the third year in a row that Hill and her reunited group have canceled some or all of their tour dates, leaving some fans posting about the repeat false alarms being “disheartening.”
On Nov. 22 of last year, Hill and the Fugees were well into a tour when she announced that the remaining dates for the year were being put off and she would resume touring in 2024. “As many of you may know, I’ve been battling serious vocal strain for the past month,” she stated at that time. “I made it through each show by taking prescribed prednisone, but this can be detrimental to the body when taken in large amounts over long periods of time. In order to prevent any long term negative affect on my voice and my body, I need to take time off to allow for real vocal recovery so that I can discontinue the medication completely.”
A reunion tour with the Fugees was first announced for 2022, then postponed, with ongoing COVID conditions cited as the reason.
When dates have taken place, the shows have been very well-received by fans, and Variety included the Hill/Fugees show at L.A.’s Forum last year on a list of 2023’s best concerts.
Welp. So much for that!
