Ali Condon
Sam Smith has had an unfortunate run with their highly-anticipated tour, Gloria, having already been forced to postpone a number of gigs last minute due to illness.
But things took a turn for the worst on Wednesday night (24 May), when the Grammy-winner was forced to cancel a concert at Manchester's AO Arena four songs into the show.
Adoring fans were baffled when the concert stopped suddenly mid-way through and Sam left the stage and the lights went out.
Advert
For a while, fans were quite literally left in the dark as they tried to figure out what had gone wrong.
Confused ticket-holders presumed that there had been a 'power cut' in the arena, but a few minutes later it was announced that the concert would not continue.
Taking to Twitter, fans were quick to express their concern, confusion, and disappointment, wondering what on earth had happened to the 31-year-old singer.
One tweet read: "Approximately less than 10 minutes before @samsmith cancelled the #Manchester show lastnight. Teasing us with a special surprise performance of their new song. The only surprise we got was the show ending after 4 songs."
Another fan, who was obviously a little frustrated by the whole ordeal, tweeted: "Well all was going great at the Sam Smith concert until urm... they cancelled it after four songs... FUMING!!"
And a third commented: "Really odd night at Sam Smith's Manchester show. Brilliant vocals & great energy for a handful of songs, a promise of an exclusive of a new song at the end. A few songs in, the stage goes black before house lights come up and it's announced that the show's cancelled."
Sam has since issued a public statement to address the shock cancellation, revealing that it happened because there was something 'really wrong' with their voice.
"I don't know what to say honestly," they began.
"I fought off a virus a few weeks ago and since then we have travelled across Europe and had such incredible shows.
"Today in soundcheck I felt fine and was so excited to give Manchester an amazing show tonight, with a special surprise at the end."
They continued: "During my third song, I noticed something wrong with my voice.
"I prayed it was just my voice waking up for the show but into the fourth song I could feel something was really wrong.
"I came off stage and have tried everything to get my voice back in gear but it won't.
"I am honestly heartbroken I couldn't finish the show tonight for you all. I love you all. I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry."
Sam is scheduled to play at Glasgow's OVO Hydro this evening (25 May), after being forced to cancel the original date on April 22.
At the time of writing there has been no news of further cancellation.