By Katie Rosseinsky
Sam Fender has revealed that he has been forced to pull out of a string of European festival dates after suffering a vocal cord haemorrhage.
The Brit Award winner, 31, told fans that during an appointment with his ENT doctor earlier this week, he learned that his vocal cords were 鈥渟lightly swollen鈥, and later struggled to perform during his headline gig at Silverstone.
A further medical check up then revealed that he had suffered a haemorrhage, prompting his doctor to advise him not to sing for the next fortnight to avoid 鈥渓asting damage to [his] vocal cords鈥.
鈥淗ey everyone, at the beginning of the week I got my voice checked by my ENT doctor and the cords were slightly swollen,鈥 Fender wrote in a statement shared on Instagram.
鈥淎fter a few days rest I was advised by my team that I was okay to perform. On stage at Silverstone I could feel that things were a lot harder than usual, I felt I needed to push a lot harder to sing 鈥 this is never a good sign.
鈥淚鈥檝e just been checked by my ENT again today, as I was concerned about it, and it鈥檚 transpired that I鈥檝e had a haemorrhage on one of my vocal cords.鈥
The 鈥淪eventeen Going Under鈥 singer described the news as 鈥渋ncredibly frustrating鈥 as he has been 鈥渟o careful with [his] vocal health鈥 this year.
鈥淚鈥檝e been advised to be on vocal restriction and to not sing for the next 14 days,鈥 he added.
鈥淚f I were to play at these next shows I would risk causing lasting damage to my vocal cords. This means I cannot perform at the upcoming Rock Werchter, Down the Rabbit Hole, NOS Alive, and Montreux Jazz Festivals.
鈥淚鈥檓 so sorry to everyone who is coming to those festivals with our show in mind. Our fans are the most important thing to us, I hate letting people down and I hate not being able to sing for weeks as it is my only real passion in life.鈥
Fender shared his hope that he will be able to 鈥渕ake it up鈥 to fans 鈥渄own the line鈥 and assured them that he is 鈥済onna work to get this voice fixed鈥, before signing off with 鈥渓ove from me and the band鈥.
The musician previously cancelled a handful of gigs on his 2024 tour after a similar injury to his vocal cords forced him to pull out of dates in Glasgow and in his home city of Newcastle.
He recently concluded a stadium tour with homecoming gigs at St James鈥 Park and received the Brit Award for Best Alternative / Rock Act earlier this year.