Morrissey was due to play two shows on January 26th and 27th in California, both of which have been cancelled. As well as his North American gigs, Morrissey’s South American tour which would run from the 3rd to the 24th in February has also been cancelled. The tour was intended to span South America, stopping at Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. The singer is to remain in Switzerland under medical supervision until he recovers.

Californian post-punk band, She Wants Revenge, was booked to support Morrissey on the Californian leg of his American tour. The band has since expressed their sadness at Morrissey’s poor health and subsequent cancellation. Taking to Instagram, the band said: “like many of you, though we are frustrated and deeply disappointed, we are not terribly surprised… We all knew this was a possibility, we just hoped it would play out different this time”. 

Although these circumstances are outside of Morrissey’s control, the singer does have a history of last-minute cancellations. In July 2023, Morrissey cancelled the Nottingham leg of his UK and Ireland tour on the day of the performance. This tour was itself announced after he pulled out of a London show scheduled for the same day in July. Later in 2023, Morrissey was scheduled to play in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Bangkok as part of his 40 years of Morrissey tour. These events were also cancelled just days before they were supposed to go ahead. Morrissey’s 40 years of Morrissey tour has faced a slew of abrupt cancellations across the globe.

This latest wave of cancellations only continues Morrissey’s unreliable reputation, leaving the singer’s live career in stasis. In light of Morrissey’s claim that “cancel culture begins at home”, it seems appropriate that the singer has now cancelled himself abroad.

The conflict between Israel and Gaza has been ongoing for decades, however the latest escalation occurred recently on October 7th, when Hamas, an Islamic Resistance Movement governing the Gaza strip of the Palestinian territories, launched an unprecedented attack on Israel killing 1,400 people and taking more than 200 hostages. Israel retaliated by launching air strikes, and as it stands, the United Nations have reported 4,200 deaths in Gaza over the last 10 days.

The MTV EMAs, which were set to be held in Paris on November 5th, have now been cancelled “out of an abundance of caution”, according to a BBC statement from the event’s organisers Paramount.

Paramount describes the annual event as “an annual celebration of global music”, but said as “events in Israel and Gaza continue to unfold, this does not feel like a moment for a global celebration. With thousands of lives already lost, it is a moment of mourning”.

In a social media post from Paramount, the event organisers issued a declaration saying “Given the volatility of world events, we have decided not to move forward with the 2023 MTV EMAs out of an abundance of caution for the thousands of employees, crew members, artists, fans, and partners who travel from all corners of the world to bring the show to life.”

Given the volatility of world events, we have decided not to move forward with the 2023 MTV EMAs out of an abundance of caution for the thousands of employees, crew members, artists, fans, and partners who travel from all corners of the world to bring the show to life.

— MTV EMA (@mtvema) October 19, 2023

MTV announced the list of performers for the awards show previously this week. Acts on the line up include the likes of Anne Marie, David Guetta and Thirty Seconds To Mars, all of which are also 2023 MTV EMA nominees. You can view the full list of performers and nominees here. The EMAs were set to broadcast on MTV in more than 150 countries, as well as stream on Pluto TV and Paramount+.

Paramount have announced that voting for the awards show will continue, and the event will be rescheduled to November 2024 with all the original performers.

Voting is continuing and the winning artists will receive their MTV EMA Awards.

We look forward to hosting the MTV EMAs again in November of 2024.

— MTV EMA (@mtvema) October 19, 2023

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A post shared by Animal Collective (@anmlcollective)

Set to begin this November, the group’s 6 date UK tour – and then extensive European leg – was announced in the later months of last year. But now all these careful plans have been torn down, in summary, due to “Inflation, currency devaluation, bloated shipping and transportation costs”. The band released a statement to their Instagram explaining the situation: “Friends, we are absolutely gutted to announce today that we are making the decision to cancel our UK/EU dates for this November. We love playing music for you and truly wish we could be there.”

The post then takes a more sombre tone: “It has been a wild year for us trying to push through a mountain of touring obstacles related to COVID and the economy. Three of us got bad cases of Covid. We were forced to cancel shows and lost large amounts of the income that sustains us and our families. But preparing for this tour we were looking at an economic reality that simply does not work and is not sustainable.”

The obvious levels of sheer disappointment then come with the band’s explanation for the newfound costs of touring: “From inflation to currency devaluation, to bloated shipping and transportation costs, and much much more, we simply could not make a budget for this tour that did not lose money even if everything went as well as it could. We have always been the kind of people to persevere through the difficult times and get on stage unless our health prevented it. We are choosing not to take the risk to our mental and physical health with the economic reality of what that tour would have been. We hope you understand and that you know we would not make a choice like this lightly.”

 This summary seems to me like very bad news. Animal Collective may not be a household name these days, but they still have an undying fanbase all around the world after the huge success of their older projects like Merriweather Post Pavilion, or even Strawberry Jam. But now, they don’t have the funds to make it across the Atlantic. Consider for a moment a band in today’s day and age, with a new album that launches their career in the same way as Merriweather did for AN CO. Would we even get the chance to see them? Or will they just end up slipping through the cracks… this is bad news.