Just hours out from her scheduled appearance on Saturday Night Live, Charli XCX has announced that her performance won’t be going ahead due to “limited crew”.

Charli was set to perform with Caroline Polachek and Christine And The Queens on the December 18 episode of the show, hosted by Paul Rudd. However, new COVID restrictions were brought in by the NBC programme in response to the Omicron variant, reducing the number of cast and crew.

“Due to the limited crew at tonight’s taping of SNL my musical performances will no longer be able to go ahead. I am devastated and heartbroken,” she shared on social media. “It can’t happen this time but I’ll be back! I am currently safe and healthy but of course very sad. Please look after yourselves out there and make sure you get vaccinated if you haven’t already.”

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“Just to clear up any confusion i didn’t decide to cancel or pull out of the show tonight!” Charli wrote in a follow-up post. “We were informed at around 3pm ish that my segment of the show wouldn’t be able to go ahead for everyone’s safety and so there was nothing we could do” 

SNL issued a statement about the new restrictions on their Twitter page, saying: “Due to the recent spike in the Omicron variant and out of an abundance of caution, there will be no live audience for tonight’s taping of “Saturday Night Live” and the show will have limited cast and crew.”

“The show continues to follow all government safety guidelines in addition to a rigorous testing protocol.”

The statement did not say whether any cast or crew members had tested positive for the virus.

It comes as COVID cases spike in New York, where SNL is filmed. The US state recorded its highest single-day case numbers since the early days of the pandemic on Friday (December 17), with more than 21,000 people returning positive tests.

Charli, Polachek and Christine And The Queens were set to perform their collaborative single ‘New Shapes’, lifted from Charli’s forthcoming album ‘CRASH’. Slated for release on March 18, the record will also feature the pop singer’s September track ‘Good Ones’.