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Arlo Parks cancels concerts because of ‘debilitating’ mental health decline

Katie Archer
·Contributor
Updated ·2-min read
Arlo Parks performs at the 50th Roskilde Festival on July 1, 2022 in Roskilde, Denmark. (Photo by Rune Hellestad- Corbis/ Corbis via Getty Images).
Arlo Parks is taking some time to recover. (Corbis via Getty Images).

Arlo Parks has cancelled a number of shows, telling fans that she needs to take a break after her mental health has "deteriorated to a debilitating place".

The 22-year-old singer was touring in the US, but has scrapped some of her forthcoming dates to fly home so that she can rest and recover.

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Mercury Prize-winning Parks is then expected to pick up her tour again at Portland’s Crystal Ballroom on 26 September.

She wrote on social media: “I’ve been on the road on and off for the last 18 months, filling every spare second in between and working myself to the bone.

Arlo Parks performs during 2022 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival on June 17, 2022 in Manchester, Tennessee. (Photo by Erika Goldring/WireImage)
The singer has been touring for 18 months. (WireImage)

“It was exciting and I was eager to grind and show everyone what I was capable of, how grateful I was to be where I am today.

“The people around me started to get worried but I was anxious to deliver and afraid to disappoint my fans and myself.

“I pushed myself unhealthily, further and harder than I should’ve.”

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Parks said she now found herself in a “very dark place, exhausted and dangerously low”.

“It’s painful to admit that my mental health has deteriorated to a debilitating place, that I’m not okay, that I’m a human being with limits,” she said.

Nominated artist Arlo Parks holding the shortlist trophy during the announcement of the shortlist for the Hyundai Mercury Prize Albums of the Year, at the Langham Hotel in London. Picture date: Thursday July 22, 2021.
Arlo Parks won the 2021 Mercury Prize. (PA)

Announcing she was cancelling some shows, she added: “I don’t take decisions like this lightly but I am broken and I really need to step out, go home and take care of myself.

“I will do everything I can to make this up to you – for now you can get refunds at your point of purchase.

“I’m forever thankful to everyone who continues to show up for me, what a dream to have fans like you guys – I’ll be back – love AP.”

Just days earlier, Sam Fender also decided to cancel shows for the same reason, saying he had become "burnt out".

Parks, real name Anais Marinho, won a Brit Award for best new artist and the Mercury Prize for her album 'Collapsed in Sunbeams' in 2021 and has been touring internationally, opening for acts such as Harry Styles and Billie Eilish.

Watch: Arlo Parks wins 2021 Mercury Prize