Guatemalan singer Ricardo Arjona will not continue his concert tour due to back problems that will force him to undergo surgery, the team of the successful Latin American artist confirmed to EFE.
“Ricardo Arjona is not retiring” The Guatemalan team clarified emphatically in response to the confusion caused by a publication by the artist on his social networks at the end of his Blanco y Negro tour in Chile.
“There is no significant retreat. “We have just finished a very long tour and Ricardo has some (non-serious) health problems in his back that need rest,” the team said in a written statement to EFE, denying rumors of a final farewell to the stage .
The Guatemalan launched the Blanco y Negro tour in 2022 in Europe, from where he continued through the United States and Latin America and then continued this year with a second leg that began with presentations on December 9th and 10th in Santiago, Chile , culminating in the conclusion of a tour with 159 concerts.
According to Billboard Boxscore, as of mid-2023, Arjona's tours had totaled $154.6 million in revenue and two million tickets sold, numbers that make him the 10th most lucrative Latin American artist to tour of all time.
At the end of the last of the two concerts in Chile, 59-year-old Arjona published a long statement on Instagram in which he announced that he was canceling his tour in light of the back problems that plagued him and required an imminent surgical procedure.
“I have to disappear to invent a reason bigger than this. “If I don't find it, I'd rather not return,” he wrote on the social network, with a touch of mystery that caused fear among his thousands of followers.
The more than 13,000 comments on the release mix emotional thanks and requests that he not give up music.
However, from the artist's office in Miami, they assure us that long breaks are part of a musician's career: “It's something he normally does.”
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A review of his discography and tours shows that Arjona, with more than 30 years of experience and author of countless very popular ballads in Latin America, took a two or three year break between his projects, as happened between the release of Nocturnal Animal (1992) and Stories (1994).
The Blanco y Negro tour in celebration of their albums Blanco (2020) and Negro (2021) had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Spinal injections to meet your obligations
Last September, Arjona's team announced that “a medical crisis” had prevented the artist from meeting the final dates of the “Blanco y Negro” tour, particularly the concerts in Argentina, Chile and Bolivia.
“Ricardo Arjona underwent surgery for infiltrations in the spine to allow his involvement, but the results were not sufficient so he will need a few more weeks of recovery,” his team said in a statement.
Over the next two months, the singer-songwriter received “six spinal infiltrations” (epidural injections) that allowed him to stand during concerts, postponing inevitable surgery to meet his outstanding commitments.
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But after this month's concerts at Santiago's Bicentenario La Florida stadium, the winner of a Grammy and a Latin Billboard lifetime achievement award indicated he could no longer continue the tour.
“Life and people have been extremely generous with this neighborhood Guatemalan, a public school teacher, who, by playing the guitar, adding a few words and trying out a melody, accomplished a miracle he never imagined.” , he said gratefully.