Last week, Björk canceled a few European tour dates. Today, she’s offered an explanation for those cancelations on Facebook. And it turns out that she canceled those shows, at least in part, because it’s proven emotionally draining to sing the songs from Vulnicura, her shattering 2015 album about her breakup with longtime partner Matthew Barney, onstage. That seems entirely reasonable! I don’t know how she’s been doing that for the last few months. I couldn’t even listen to that album everyday, and I didn’t go through what she’s singing about. But she’s also working on new songs, and that’s another reason for the cancelation, so that’s good. Here’s her statement:

i would like to thank everyone for the concert last night !!!!!! i have no words to describe how grateful i am for this tour : i would like to thank the crew and the promoters and the musicians and the management , the designers . and most of all my personal little team and the audience !!! these have truly been some of my most sublime moments !! singing this album has been intense and the internal clock of it different to the other ones . it has sort of had to behave in its own little way . both the urgency of the leak and now this sudden closure for reasons beyond my control is characteristic of that . i hope through the years i have earned enough tourkarma points to get your support for this .

i have started writing new songs and feel the best most natural pathway to go is to let this beast flow its natural course and start anew

best intentions

björk

The prospect of new Björk songs is an enticing one. Where do you go after Vulnicura?