Fugees have announced that they’ve had to cancel their long-awaited reunion tour.
The hugely influential hip-hop group – Ms. Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel – announced in September last year that they would reunite for a 2021 world tour celebrating 25 years of their classic 1996 album ‘The Score’.
In October, the group announced that they would be rescheduling the tour’s original run of dates to 2022 in order to ensure “the best chance that all cities on the tour will be fully open” following some of them being restricted due to COVID measures being put in place.
Today (January 21), however, the New Jersey trio informed fans that the tour won’t be going ahead at all due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“We anticipate and understand disappointment but our anniversary tour will not be able to happen,” the Fugees wrote in a statement shared to social media. “The continued Covid pandemic has made touring conditions difficult, and we want to make sure we keep our fans and ourselves healthy and safe.
“And idea sparked to honour and celebrate this 25th anniversary of The Score but we see now it may not currently be our time for revisiting this past work, We’re grateful for the special night we did get to share with some of you in New York, with that rare live moment.”
The group concluded: “If opportunity, public safety, and scheduling allow, we hope to be able to revisit this again sometime soon. THANK YOU for all your love and support throughout the years.”
The series of worldwide arena shows were set to begin last November including a show scheduled for December 6 at The O2 in London.
Ahead of the tour kicking off, the Fugees gave fans a taste of what they could expect with a special pop-up show at The Rooftop at Pier 17 venue in New York City on September 22.
At the show, the trio played a nine-song set featuring a host of tracks from ‘The Score’ as well as their famous version of Lori Lieberman’s ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’ and Bob Marley & The Wailers classic ‘No Woman, No Cry’, which closed the set.
“The Fugees have a complex but impactful history,” Ms. Lauryn Hill said of the group in a statement at the time of the reunion announcement. “I wasn’t even aware the 25th anniversary had arrived until someone brought it to my attention.
“I decided to honour this significant project, its anniversary, and the fans who appreciated the music by creating a peaceful platform where we could unite, perform the music we loved, and set an example of reconciliation for the world.”
Prior to the tour’s scheduled kick-off, it was reported that the international dates could potentially have been in jeopardy due to an ongoing legal case involving band member Pras.