Santigold cancels tour with post about challenges that touring artists are facing

The Holified Tour was due to be in support of Santigold's Spirituals album that arrived earlier this month, but in a new post on her website, Santigold revealed that it won't be going ahead, and outlined some of the obstacles that touring musicians now face after the pandemic.

"As a touring musician, I don’t think anyone anticipated the new reality that awaited us," Santigold wrote. "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 our tried-and-true venues unavailable due to a flooded market of artists trying to book shows in the same cities, and positive test results constantly halting schedules with devastating financial consequences. All of that on top of the already-tapped mental, spiritual, physical, and emotional resources of just having made it through the past few years. Some of us are finding ourselves simply unable to make it work."

She continued, "In my case, I have tried and tried, looked at what it would take from every angle, and I simply don’t have it. I can’t make it work. I’m actually going to elaborate on it more later because I think it’s important for people to know the truth of what it’s like out here for artists and I don’t believe enough of us are talking about it publicly. I’ve seen a couple articles start to emerge, literally over the past few days, just as I had started writing this letter to you, about musicians canceling tours, prioritising themselves over the demands of a relentless industry. But for now, I want to tell you that for me it has taken a toll – through anxiety, insomnia, fatigue, vertigo, chronic pain, and missing crucial time with my children. In the place that I’m in, in the place that the music business is in, it feels like I’ve been hanging on, trying to make it to the ever-distant finish line, but my vehicle’s been falling apart the whole time – the bumper fell off, the wheels one at a time, the steering wheel, and finally the whole bottom fell out. And here I am thinking, ‘Should I just hold the doors up and run?’ And my little heart that has been working way beyond its limits, my whole body in fact and my soul too, are screaming at me "NO muthafucka! Pull.The Fuck. Over!""

"I’m coming to you with the honesty that is inherent in my music," Santigold added. "How could I release Spirituals, an album about honouring yourself and refusing to cross your own boundaries, and not take this opportunity to do just that for myself? I want you to understand that I am proud to be canceling this tour when it means that I am proclaiming that I, the person who writes the songs, is as important to me as the songs. 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."

On Instagram, Santigold received supportive comments from other musicians including Woodkid, Lily Allen, Lykke Li, Cat Power, Garbage, Mark Ronson, The Avalanches and more.

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