Ms. Lauryn Hill and the Fugees cancel 2024 U.S. tour
Ms. Lauryn Hill and the Fugees have called off a U.S. tour that was set to begin Friday.
Concert dates listed on Ticketmaster were updated Tuesday to say they’d been canceled, while show listings on promoter Live Nation’s website informed ticket holders that they’d soon be refunded. In an Instagram post on Wednesday, Hill suggested that low ticket sales were to blame.
Billed as The Celebration Continues: The Miseducation Anniversary Tour, the road show was supposed to feature Hill and her Fugees bandmates Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel performing music from the Fugees’ seven-times-platinum 1996 album, “The Score,” and from Hill’s Grammy-winning 1998 solo debut, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” It was scheduled to kick off Friday in Tampa, Fla., and run through mid-September, with a Sept. 17 stop at the Hollywood Bowl, where Hill brought a 20th-anniversary tour based on “Miseducation” in 2018. The cancellation was reported earlier by Variety. European dates on the books for October and November were still active on Ticketmaster's site.
After not performing together for 15 years, the Fugees — known for expanding the role of melody and live instrumentation in hip-hop with hits like "Ready or Not" and their smash rendition of Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly With His Song" — announced a reunion tour in 2021 but played only a single date before canceling the tour as a result of what the group said were pandemic-related difficulties. Hill and the Fugees hit the road again in late 2023 only to end up pulling out of concert dates a second time, with Hill citing “serious vocal strain.”
Hill referred to that injury — and the subsequent media coverage of the tour's cancellation — on Instagram on Wednesday, writing that "some media outlet's penchant for sensationalism and clickbait headlines have seemingly created a narrative that has affected ticket sales for the North American portion of the [upcoming] tour. The trust and faith I have in my intentions and my commitment to my art seem to have been overshadowed by this unfortunate portrayal."
Before she called off the 2023 tour, Hill made news with a performance at L.A.’s Crypto.com Arena, where she gave a viral six-minute speech about her reputation for starting shows late (“Y’all lucky I make it on this … stage every night,” she told the audience) and what she characterized as her mistreatment by the record industry.
In Wednesday's Instagram post, Hill wrote, "Performing for my fans, is a profound exchange of emotion and energy that excites me every time. Every show is a piece of my expression and testament to our connection and shared love for music. I can assure you that no one is more disappointed about not being able to perform than I am.
"Know that I am not only grateful for those who appreciate and support my art, but that I FIGHT and push through all kinds of resistance to put together experiences that mean something for all of us."
She added that she looked forward to her and the Fugees' upcoming European dates and told fans in North America that "when these unforeseen circumstances are resolved, we'll be back in full force."
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
