Adele Cancels U.S. Tour, Yet Again, Due to Vocal Cord Injury

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British singer-songwriter Adele is having the breakout year of her young career, so it must be doubly frustrating that she’s pulling the plug on her stateside tour. Again.

Adele announced in a statement Tuesday that, due to health problems affecting that lush voice of hers, she’s had to cancel a sold-out tour of several American cities. “I have absolutely no choice but to recuperate properly and fully, or I risk damaging my voice forever,” she said in the statement. “I have great confidence in believing you know how much this upsets me, how seriously I take it and how truly devastated and annoyed I am by this.”

Reading between the lines, it transpires that the 23-year-old has internal bleeding close to her vocal chords and has been instructed by doctors to take this extended break. The tour was slated to begin this Friday in Atlantic City, before swinging through the likes of  Nashville, Orlando, Miami, Atlanta and Austin before coming to a close in Grand Prairie, Texas, on Oct. 21.

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The Londoner sent a profuse apology to her fans, with her words indicating how bitterly upset she is. “I know its not only disappointing because of the show, but it’s plane tickets, hotel bookings, birthdays, anniversaries and time wasted,” she wrote. “But please have faith in me that this is the only thing I can do to make sure I can always sing and always make music for you.”

Back in June, she ended up canceling the last nine dates of that North American tour after coming down with laryngitis (the new shows were then re-scheduled for August and October) with those August shows going without a hitch. But the signs have unfortunately been there: Adele subsequently had to pull out of her performance at the Barclaycard Mercury Prize in September. Even though the judges maintain that the winner is not based on the live show, her disappointment was clearly palpable for all to see that she was unable to perform and she lost out to PJ Harvey (who, in fairness, was the bookmakers’ favorite).

It’s a good thing that her sophomore album, 21, has done such gang-busters business (10 million copies sold worldwide) because, at this rate, it’s the only way you can hear her sing. (via NY Times)

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Glen Levy is an Executive Producer at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @glenjl. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.