Solange Shares News of Battling Illness, Cancels Afropunk NYE Performance

Solange, who most recently directed a video for SZA’s “The Weekend,” revealed on Instagram that she will not perform at Afropunk in Johannesburg, South Africa on New Year’s Eve. Her post detailed bravery in the face of an autonomic nerve disorder, which can cause disruption to the nervous system and present irregularities in heartbeat, digestion, body temperature and more—she’s been “quietly treating” the disorder over “the past five months.”

“I can’t thank Afro Punk enough for their support, and to all of the other festivals this past summer/fall who have known about my health, kept it confidential, and gone out of their way to make me feel supported while doing these shows,” she writes in the statement. “As a part of the self care that I’ve tried to encourage this past year, it needs to start with myself, and I’m looking forward to doing a better job of this 2018.”

Doctors advised Solange not to travel to South Africa, though she intends to perform at Afropunk when she’s feeling better, saying that “it is so extremely important to me to connect with the people who have so closely inspired me in so many ways.”

In addition to what has been a “complicated diagnosis” and an apparently ongoing illness, Solange has managed to make headlines, with forceful impacts on both fashion and music in 2017. Read the text of her Instagram post below.

Wrote, deleted and re wrote this like 5 times…
Still not sure what exactly or how much I want to share…
However it’s so important to me for the people in South Africa, a place that has tremendous meaning to me and that has given me SO SO MUCH, to know why I won’t be performing at Afro Punk this NYE.
The past five months I have been quietly treating, and working through an Autonomic Disorder. It been a journey that hasn’t been easy on me…
Sometimes I feel cool, and other times not so cool at all.
It’s a complicated diagnoses , and I’m still learning so much myself, but right now, my doctors are not clearing me for such an extended lengthy flight, and doing a rigorous show right after.

I can’t put into words how saddened and sorry I am that I am unable to perform for you guys this NYE, there is simply no other place I wanted to be than there with my family to bring in 2018 with you…….but I give you my ABSOLUTE WORD I will come back with AfroPunk and deliver this performance…..as it is so extremely important to me to connect with the people who have so closely inspired me in so many ways.

I can’t thank Afro Punk enough for their support, and to all of the other festivals this past summer/fall who have known about my health, kept it confidential, and gone out of their way to make me feel supported while doing these shows.
As a part of the self care that I’ve tried to encourage this past year, it needs to start with myself, and I’m looking forward to doing a better job of this 2018.
This past year has been one of the most fulfilling of my life…
Performing this record and experiencing the energy exchange with you guys has been astounding, and I’m so excited about continuing to do the work I feel so absolutely humbled and appreciative to be doing next year. It gives me life.