Justin Timberlake cancelled the final show of his US tour in Columbus, Ohio, barely 10 minutes before the concert was set to start.
The Columbia gig was originally set for November but was postponed along with five other shows to February as the singer was suffering from bronchitis and laryngitis. It was rescheduled as the last leg of Timberlake’s Forget Tomorrow World Tour.
The “SexyBack” singer said he went into soundcheck with the flu and “it’s gotten the best of me”.
“You guys. I’m heartbroken,” he wrote on Instagram.
“I have to cancel the show tonight. I went into soundcheck battling the flu and now it’s gotten the best of me. It kills me to disappoint you, and my team worked so hard to make this show happen. I want to reassure you, you’ll be getting refunds for your tickets. I love you all.”
According to WBNS-10TV and multiple social media posts from disappointed fans, Timberlake’s Instagram post went out no more than 10-15 minutes before the concert at the Nationwide Arena was scheduled to start at 7.30pm.
Fans were left livid due to the short notice of the cancellation and questioned why the singer left the decision until the last minute.
“Everyone leaving Nationwide Arena because Justin Timberlake cancelled the LAST tour date after already rescheduling from October. 10 minutes before the opener and after doors opened,” posted a fan, sharing a video of other concert attendees leaving the venue.
“Justin Timberlake posted at 7:20 he canceled the show. The doors were already open. He wasn’t sound checking at 7:20. He could’ve announced hours ago before we all wasted our time and money. He owes us more than a refund,” said another.
Timberlake will continue his world tour in support of his recent album, Everything I Thought It Was, his first record in six years.
The album, which was released in March, has been critically panned, with a two-star review in The Independent calling it “about as sexy as a soiled mattress”.
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Last year in June, the former NSYNC star was mired in scandal after he was arrested for driving through a stop sign. He had been partying at the American Hotel and told police he was following his friends home, TMZ reported at the time.
Police said that Timberlake “performed poorly on all standardised field sobriety tests” and repeatedly refused to take a breathalyser, adding that he had glassy eyes and smelled of alcohol. “He was unable to divide attention, he had slowed speech, he was unsteady afoot.”
He issued an apology following his guilty plea to one count of driving while impaired, saying: “Many of you have probably been covering me for a lot of my life and as you may know I try to hold myself to a very high standard for myself, and this was not that.
“I found myself in a position where I could have made a different decision, but I’ve had some time to reflect on that and I also understand by the fact that all of you are here that I have a platform, you have a platform, we share that.
“So what I’d like to say to everyone watching and listening… even if you’ve had one drink – don’t get behind the wheel of a car. There’s so many alternatives, call a friend, get an Uber.”
