Santigold cancels tour amid “immense physical, mental and economic” challenges
Indie stalwart Santigold has become the latest artist to cancel their tour amid “immense physical, mental and economic” challenges in the post-pandemic and post-Brexit landscape for artists.
In the last few weeks, Sam Fender, Wet Leg, Bret McKenzie, Yard Act, Demi Lovato and countless others have all had to cancel or postpone tour dates. Now, Santigold has also had to call off dates and penned an open letter citing her reasons.
She said that she was “both sad and proud to announce” her decision to cancel the Holified Tour. Citing the post-pandemic reality as the driving factor behind the added stresses that artists face.
She stated: “After sitting idle (not being able to do shows) for the past couple years, many of us like everyone else, earning no or little income during that time, every musician that could, rushed back out immediately when it was deemed safe to do shows. We were met with the height of inflation – gas, tour buses, hotels, and flight costs skyrocketed – many of the tried-and-true venues unavailable due to flooded markets.”
There are even more factors, including Brexit making it harder to tour in the tried and test UK market for foreign artists and equally hard for British acts to tour overseas. Also, with punters hit by the economic crisis, audience availability has diminished. And the music industry itself has pushed to further recruit its losses from artists.
All of this has increased the strain on artists in every sense, and many are now taking back dominion over their output. As Santigold states: “I will not continue to sacrifice myself for an industry that has become unsustainable for, and uninterested in the welfare of the artists it is built upon.”
With Santigold being a touring artist now for two decades, this news seems particularly notable given that she has seen the highs and lows of the industry during her rise as an indie artist in the past. As fans, we offer Godspeed and support to artists during these trying times, however, sadly, we can’t do too much more.
You can read Santigold’s full statement below.
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