Fugees cancel reunion tour over COVID concerns

In September, the Fugees announced that they were finally getting back together for a tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of landmark hip-hop album The Score, finally silencing all of the pessimists who believed that Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, and Pras Michel would never ever reunite under the Fugees banner. After a surprise kick-off show in New York the day after the tour was announced (one that started hours late and only featured seven songs), though, the rest of the dates were pushed back to 2022 “to ensure the best chance that all cities on the tour are fully open.”

But now that it’s 2022 and things aren’t all that much better, the Fugees have decided to just go ahead and cancel the whole tour. In other words, the pessimists who said it would never happen were right, again. In an Instagram post, the trio said that the “continued COVID pandemic has made touring conditions difficult” and that they “want to make sure we keep our fans and ourselves healthy and safe.” The statement goes on to suggest that it’s just not the right time for them to revisit The Score, and it ends by saying that, “if opportunity, public safety, and scheduling allow, we hope to be able to revisit this again sometime soon.”

Variety notes that “many of the dates” for the rescheduled 2022 shows “had very light ticket sales,” indicating that many fans around the world possibly weren’t ready to face COVID even to see a Fugees show, which Variety says “probably contributed to the decision to cancel.”

As indicated by the Instagram statement, there’s word on when this The Score tour will happen, but it’s really an “if” now instead of a “when.” That means we can all go back to the safety of assuming that the Fugees will, again, never get back together.