An hour before Lizzo's much-anticipated Montreal show at the Bell Centre on May 4, ticketholders were dismayed to learn that the singer, known for hits such as "Truth Hurts" and "About Damn Time," was too sick for the concert to go on.
In an Instagram video posted that evening, Lizzo explained that she "had a sore throat" the night before, which got worse after a night's rest. "My body is weak and I have chills, and my head hurts," she said.
"Normally, if it's just a cold, I'd shower and I would eat, take some medicine [and] it gets better," Lizzo added, "but this is getting worse. I think it's the flu."
The singer's last-minute postponement left plenty of concertgoers with a variety of emotions, from angry to sympathetic and everything in between.
The comments on her Instagram video were largely full of well-wishes.
Comments from Lizzo's comment section.@lizzobeeating | Instagram
"We're still in a pandemic," one user reminded Lizzo's followers. "I hope you get better soon, Lizzo — well wishes on recovery and nothing else."
Others suggested it might be COVID that the singer was suffering from. But the most heartbreaking comments are those like the one from @kaitlanlewis in the screenshot above: those who travelled from far away to see the show were left stranded in Montreal after lengthy journeys.
"It sucks because I travelled from Newfoundland to get here which is a very expensive island to get off of," the Instagram user wrote. Despite Evenko and Lizzo's promise that the concert would be made up, this user "won't be able to see [Lizzo] now :(."
In the comments of a Beat 92.5 Facebook post about the cancellation, would-be Lizzbians lamented the lack of Lizzo that night, too. More than on Instagram, fans were "disappointed" by the late notice.
"I get that people get sick but last-minute cancellation is wrong. It costs people a lot more than a concert ticket," Sharon Mann wrote. "People go out for supper, get babysitters, pay parking or Ubers. Would [have] been better to [have] known earlier [sic]."
Another commenter pointed out Lizzo's own story: "she felt sick early morning so she definitely could have announced the postponement way earlier in the day rather than about one hour before showtime," wrote Jean-François Gordon-Masmarti.
On Twitter, Lizzbians left stranded for the night in Montreal found themselves scrambling to make fun plans. User @lesbisad "improvised a whole *ss random excursion" in the city, landing two rubber ducks in exchange for missing an unforgettable night of live music. Points for creativity!
TikTokers also came through with some disappointment, with the most popular video about the cancellation exaggerating its tardiness for dramatic effect. "POV: You're at the Bell Centre and you see that Lizzo cancelled her show 15 minutes before it started," the caption for this video reads. It garnered nearly 5,500 likes as of the time of publication.
@com_lau 1h à se mettre cute un soir de semaine pour rien 🥲 #lizzo #lizzomontreal #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #montreal