In the space of a week, three massive touring artists have canceled shows to take care of their mental health.
This week, Sam Fender canned shows saying it was “exhausting to fake happiness for business,” and Wet Leg found the mental and physical exhaustion of being on tour too much not to be able to ride. on a plane.
Earlier this month, Justin Beiber canceled his world tour for similar reasons, and in his recent documentary End To End, George Ezra said the tour left him emotionally and mentally drained.
And as I write this, Howard – one half of the Disclosure dance duo – has revealed he’s at “breaking point” after struggling to be on the road, and won’t be joining his Brother Guy on their Australian tour.
They’re not the first to put a lid on a bunch of tour dates – Shawn Mendes, Solange and Selena Gomez have also been forced to do so in the past – and they won’t be the last.
And I hope they won’t be the last. The children are exhausted. Jesus, we are all tired.
I don’t mean that somehow “misfortune is the life of fame”, I really mean it. Life on the road, and even being slightly famous in general, looks awful.
Team that with probably growing sales pressures, social media expectations (not to mention the trash fire of a place where social media can be for people), pressures to just exist in 2022 and, also, like the general physical effect a flight has on the body let alone everyday flights. It’s no wonder these artists are getting started.
While it’s a different routine, it’s not just celebrities who are going through this go-go-go storm of a lifestyle.
Hustle culture has become a mainstay of the Gen Y/Millennial mentality, from careers to social lives and the acai smoothie bowls we whip up after our 5:30 gym session (I don’t know, do we have always acai bowls? It’s hard to keep up). We always have to look like we have our shit together, when, spoiler alert, nobody really does.
So why do these people often face such appalling criticism when they put their mental health above their career? We’ve all seen the vitriol Naomi Osaka cut when she took a moment to collect herself off the pitch.
It’s no wonder that us normal people, not elite athletes, push those kinds of feelings away so we don’t seem weak or like we can’t handle it all.
Can we please stop pretending that mental health isn’t a really important thing that we need to be on top of?
We’re constantly bombarded with aesthetically-packaged aspirational bits where we need to have booming careers, booming social lives, romance, all while finding the time to achieve that physically impossible Kardashian-style body in the gym. , call your mom, cook organic and sustainable meals that save dolphins, save for a house in case one day you can afford it, save the planet while you’re at it, and start some sound meditations to relax, because you look a little tired, Mel.
It’s too much.
We don’t have the same pressures as those artists I mentioned before, but they are pressures all the same and I hope that through people like Biebs and Fender sharing brutal honesty about the fact that he Just isn’t sustainable to keep 100% of our plates spinning 100% of the time, it will show us that we don’t need it either.
Hustle culture needs to take a sabbatical.
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MORE: Sam Fender cancels upcoming shows due to ‘burnout’ as he prioritizes mental health: ‘It’s exhausting to fake happiness for the sake of business’
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