The Weeknd Loses Voice, Abruptly Ends Los Angeles Arena Gig During Fourth Song

The song is called “Can’t Feel My Face,” but Saturday night, at SoFi Stadium in Greater Los Angeles, The Weeknd couldn’t feel his voice. As his band went into the Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper from 2015, the fourth tune on the “After Hours Til Dawn” tour’s set list, the Canadian genre-eluding singer-songwriter surprised the sold-out house by dashing backstage just as things were kicking into high gear.

TMZ reported that the singer, born Abel Tesfaye, ran off and was “trying to figure out what to do because had had no voice. Something happened during the previous song—he yelled and apparently it blew out his vocal cords.”

The song continued as an instrumental, and when The Weeknd reappeared, he told his audience, “it’s killing me,” adding, “I can’t give you the concert I want to give you.”

He promised that there would be a reimbursement for all, and that he’d return to the area. 

The Weeknd had performed at SoFi Stadium the previous night, and his current tour has had him on the road since mid-July. He’s been playing massive football arenas like New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, Chicago’s Soldier Field, and AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. He’s got two more scheduled, homecoming gigs at Toronto’s Rogers Centre on September 22 and 23. These are makeup performances from two earlier shows that were postponed due to the massive Canadian telecommunications outage in July. (Ironically enough, the problem sparked with Rogers Communications Inc.) The entire tour, in a way, is a re-do of a tour planned for 2020 that was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

It is currently unknown when The Weeknd will return to SoFi Stadium for the make-good show. 

The performer’s in-person apology stressed that he didn’t just want to let people know what happened via social media, but he did take to Twitter later to explain the circumstances.