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A couple of weeks after Lauryn Hill told a Los Angeles crowd that it was “lucky I make it on this … stage every night,” the singer will be taking a break from touring until next year due to vocal strain. She’ll perform at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center on Saturday but will reschedule the remaining eight concerts she’s booked for this year to 2024.
Hill previously rescheduled the Philly gig, which was originally supposed to take place Oct. 23. “I fought through the last couple shows, pushing my voice, and masking the injury with medication,” she wrote in a statement. “This isn’t safe or sustainable.” This same issue is why she has decided to postpone the rest of her tour dates.
“As many of you may know, I’ve been battling serious vocal strain for the past month,” she wrote on Instagram. “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.
“For this reason, we have to reschedule most of the remaining shows this year,” she continued. “The shows that were canceled this year will be rescheduled for early 2024 and because of the overwhelming response, we’ll be adding new cities to the tour, including overseas. We’re working on the new calendar now, and announcing soon.”
The tour, announced in October, was meant to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and would see her reunite with her fellow Fugees, Wyclef Jean and Pras. Now she says in her post, “We’re ALL looking forward to getting back out again next year to finish this EPIC (now extended anniversary) celebration of these CLASSICS.”
Rolling Stone reviewed the Oct. 17 tour opener at Newark, New Jersey’s Prudential Center, calling the performance “legendary.” “Her renditions of ‘Nothing Even Matters,’ ‘Doo Wop (That Thing),’ and ‘You’re Just to Be Good to Be True’ were exceptional,” the review says. “All of her verses were more palpable just by virtue of her vocals cutting through the instrumentation. ‘To Zion’ may have been the highlight of the night, as she sang about her first pregnancy and her son Zion as if she had just written the song.”
