According to the Los Angeles Times, he was in the middle of a performance of his hit "Can't Feel My Face" when he walked off the stage. Another song started playing briefly, then the lights came up in SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
“I’m going to make sure everyone is good, you’ll get your money back,” he told the stunned audience. “But I’ll do a show real soon for you guys.”
The Weeknd added that he wanted to apologize personally, rather than via a tweet or Instagram. “I can’t give you what I want to give you,” he said.
Many of his fans remained confused or in disbelief, not leaving their seats even after it was clear the show was over. A lot of people filmed their reactions live at his concert and posted them on their social media accounts such as TikTok, Instagram stories, and Twitter accounts.
The Weeknd later released a statement that on his Twitter account read:
He tweeted that his voice went out during the first song and said, “My voice went out during the first song and I’m devastated. Felt it go and my heart dropped. My deepest apologies to my fans here. I promise I’ll make it up to you with a new date.”
The "After Hours Til Dawn" tour will be coming back to Toronto on September 22. The tour was previously postponed due to the pandemic.
In his review of Weeknd’s opening performance at SoFi on Friday, Mikael Wood wrote that the singer’s mix of old and new material was “crisp and pulverizing loud.” He added that his singing carried emotion with a laser-like intensity, particularly in the wistful “Out of Time'' and “I Feel It Coming,” even amid the boomy atmosphere of a stadium.
The Weeknd's vocal problems were not clear Saturday night, and whether any other tour dates would be affected remained unclear. The next dates listed on Ticketmaster's calendar were Sept. 13 in Johanneshov, Sweden, followed by Sept. 22 and 23 in Toronto.
Sources: Los Angeles Times, CNN News