Three days after the Weeknd was forced to call off his second concert at Los Angeles’ Sofi Stadium after just 15 minutes, he has announced that his voice has recovered, his two Toronto dates later this month are on track, and he’s looking to reschedule Saturday night’s postponed show. Further details were not immediately available.
“Doctor says my voice is safe and with rest i’ll be solid and able to bring the show my TORONTO fans are waiting for,” he posted Tuesday afternoon. “LA date is being worked out soon. thank you SO much for all the love and understanding that’s come my way. i love you all so much… XO”
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Around 15 minutes into Saturday’s show, the Weeknd’s voice audibly gave out as he shouted “What’s up, L.A.?” and, after four songs, he decided he couldn’t continue.
“I don’t know what just happened… but I just lost my voice,” he told the crowd from the stage. “This is killing me, I don’t want to stop the show but I can’t give you the concert I want to give you right now. I’m gonna make sure everybody’s good — you’ll get your money back — I’ll do a show real soon for you guys. But I wanted to come out and personally apologize.”
“You know how much this kills me, I’m sorry. I love you thank you so much,” he said before exiting the stage.
Saturday’s aborted show was being filmed for the upcoming HBO Max show “The Idol,” which stars the Weeknd alongside Lily-Rose Depp. Wearing a white gown and with her hair in an updo, she took the stage to deliver key lines from one of the show’s penultimate moments. “I’ve had a tough year,” she says in character. “This world can be a cruel and unforgiving place and there were moments when I didn’t know if I was gonna make it.”
While most of the shows on the “After Hours Til Dawn” tour — the Weeknd’s first stadium trek — has proceeded smoothly, the first and the (originally scheduled) last date experienced major problems. The intended opening show in the Weeknd’s hometown of Toronto had to be postponed, just minutes before doors opened, due to a country-wide outage of the Rogers wireless network — approximately the equivalent of T-Mobile or Verizon crashing in the U.S. Like many businesses throughout Canada, the venue (Rogers Stadium, ironically enough) could not process tickets, food and beverage sales and other transactions.
The Toronto date was rescheduled for Sept. 22 (with a second date being added for the 23rd) — after the original end of the North American leg of the tour, which was Saturday night’s L.A. date, when his voice gave out.
Now, it appears the actual end of the North American leg will take place in Los Angeles after all, following the two Toronto dates — and after yet another trek across the continent.
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