Clairo has cancelled the last three dates of her current North American tour, after a technical incident at her gig in Toronto left her with temporary hearing damage.

The ‘Sling’ singer-songwriter was performing at Toronto’s History venue on Wednesday (July 27) when an unspecified error with her in-ear monitors caused them to become unbearably loud. Though she was unable to identify what the issue was, Clairo explained to fans on social media that “the sound totally blew out my ears”, forcing her to end the set early as she “already [has] some preexisting damage to my ears” and “couldn’t risk anything more”.

toronto – i’m so beyond sorry for being unable to finish tonights show. something happened with my in-ears (not sure what yet) and the sound totally blew out my ears. i already have some preexisting damage to my ears so i couldn’t risk anything more. love you and i’m sorry.

— claire cottrill (@clairo) July 28, 2022

Clairo updated her worried fans again overnight, noting that she “was at the doctors all morning getting my ears checked out” and although she’ll make a full recovery, she’s been “put on a restriction of ‘no loud noise for 5 days’”. As a result, the last three dates of the tour – which were scheduled to go down in Detroit, Cleveland and Indianapolis – have been cancelled. They will not be rescheduled, Clairo confirmed, and ticketholders will “be able to get refunds at your point of purchase”. 

In closing, Clairo stressed to fans that “if i played the shows, i’d only make it worse”.

if i played the shows, i’d only make it worse. i hope you understand ❤️‍?

— claire cottrill (@clairo) July 29, 2022

Clairo’s now-finished ‘Sling’ tour has faced multiple setbacks. In addition to postponements owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of shows on the run hit roadblocks in March when the artist came down with a sinus infection. In June, Clairo was forced to back out of the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona – she will, however, perform at its Los Angeles iteration in September. 

Despite the frustrating hurdles, Clairo has her sights set on a smooth run of UK and European touring as the year rolls on. She’ll begin a 13-date tour of the region in mid-September, performing headline shows and festivals in Dublin, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, the Netherlands, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester and London. Find tickets here. 

In a four-star review of Clairo’s set at Glastonbury 2022, NME’s Rhian Daly wrote: “The healing process begins as soon as the singer-songwriter takes to the stage in the John Peel tent and a horde of people slowly stumble up from the ground to let her soothing sounds wash over them. ‘Bambi’ ushers us into Clairo’s tender bubble with serene melodies before ‘Zinnias’ gets a lusher, fuller expansion compared to the recording on 2021’s ‘Sling’.”