Rina Sawayama informed her fans on Thursday (Jan. 6) that she’s been forced to cancel the dates on her planned European 2022 headlining tour due to new restrictions in place to combat the surging omicron variant of COVID-19. “European Pixels I’ve got some sad news,” she said in a post.
“Due to the ongoing restrictions resulting from the recent COVID surge, I’m having to cancel all my European dates in March this year. I was so excited to come play for you all, so this is hugely disappointing.” The good news, she said, was that she promised she’ll return to the EU again “soon” with what she described as “a bigger show and new music (EEEEE).”
The sold-out tour was slated to kick off on March 19 with a show in Paris at La Gaîté Lyrique and continue on through gigs in Brussels, Amsterdam and Berlin. At press time she did not say if the European cancellations would affect a North American leg of the tour, which is slated to kick-off on April 11 with a two-night stand at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall and run through a May 9 show at Brooklyn Steel in New York.
The Omicron variant of COVID-19 has grown explosively across the globe over the past month, with countries once again considering lockdowns and mask mandates as Britain and France have experienced record numbers of daily cases.
Charli XCX recently teased a new collab with Rina in a 20-second TikTok video, which could end up on Charli’s upcoming fifth studio album, Crash (March 18). Sawayama’s eponymous debut album dropped in April 2020, with a deluxe version following in December featuring an updated version of “Chosen Family” as a duet with Elton John.
Check out Sawayama’s statement below.
