Stevie Nicks has chosen to cancel all her upcoming shows for the remainder of 2021 due to fears of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The singer made the announcement Tuesday in a statement posted on Twitter.
"These are challenging times with challenging decisions that have to be made," Nicks said. "I want everyone to be safe and healthy and the rising [COVID] cases should be of concern to all of us. While I’m vaccinated, at my age, I am still being extremely cautious and for that reason have decided to skip the 5 performances I had planned for 2021."
Nicks added that, because she had been singing and performing her whole life, her main focus now was to stay healthy so that she could continue with her musical career.
"I’m devastated and I know the fans are disappointed, but we will look towards a brighter 2022," she concluded.
One of the festivals Nicks was scheduled to appear at was canceled but the others will move forward with replacement headliners such as country artist Chris Stapleton.
Nicks is not the only music star who has been concerned about performing while COVID-19 cases continue to surge. Last week Garth Brooks announced that he was considering postponing his nationwide stadium tour.
"It breaks my heart to see city after city go on sale and then have to ask those sweet people and the venues to reschedule," he said in a recent statement, according to The Hill.
The singer and his team will make a decision about whether or not to proceed with the tour after Brooks' concert at Nebraska's Memorial Stadium on Aug. 14.
"We have a three-week window coming up where we, as a group, will assess the remainder of the stadium tour this year," Brooks said, according to CMT. "It’s humbling to see people put this much faith in you as an artist, and it kills me to think I am letting them down."
On Saturday, prior to Brooks' performance at the Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, fans were encouraged to get vaccinated at a pre-show vaccine clinic set up by health workers, but only 35 people reportedly got their jab, The Kansas City Star reported.
The Kansas City metro area saw an uptick of 5,000 cases in the week leading up to the show. Commenting before the show, Brooks admitted he was trying to figure out how to proceed in light of these statistics.
"What happens now with this recent spike, everybody’s kind of, you know, worried about, 'Are we doing the right thing?' I’m one of them," he said. "I’m trying to figure it out as we go."
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Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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