Frank Ocean Suffers Vocal Cord Tear, Cancels Sold-Out Australian Tour After Being Advised To Rest Voice [VIDEO]
Concert promoter LiveNation announced early Friday that Grammy-award-winning singer Frank Ocean would have to cancel the remainder of his sold-out tour dates in Australia in order to recover from a vocal cord tear.
"After last night's concert in Melbourne at Festival Hall, it was necessary to seek medical advice due to vocal issues Frank Ocean experienced during the show," read a statement from the promoter, which was posted on Facebook. "It has subsequently been confirmed that Frank has suffered a small tear to one of his vocal cords and has received medical advice that he must rest his voice. This makes the completion of his remaining Australian dates impossible."
According to Billboard, the singer was slated to play a show Friday night and two additional shows next week. The last show was added after the other three dates sold out.
Thursday night as Ocean performed, he was uncharacteristically short on words for fans in attendance at the show. During a performance of his hit song "Forrest Gump," the singer reportedly said, "I'm sick... I don't know if you care." And, after the performance, he left the stage without giving fans an encore.
"I don't wanna speak much tonight but I do wanna thank you guys," he said.
Last year, Ocean revealed via open blog post that he is attracted to men after a review of his album "Channel Orange" implied that he was singing about men. Since then, support for the 25-year-old singer has swelled tremendously. It's no surprise that he sold out four shows in Australia. Now, concert and festival promoters are scrambling to figure out what to do about Ocean's cancelled dates.
"With Splendour already in full swing this is devastating news for the event and will be for many of our patrons," a spokesperson for the festival said.
Watch a video from Ocean's Thursday night performance below: