For the first time in her dizzying rise in country-pop, Taylor Swift has been sidelined by sickness, announcing that she had to cancel four concerts on her current tour because of bronchitis. It was the first time Ms. Swift, who at 21 has become one of the best-selling singer-songwriters in the United States, had postponed or canceled a show because of illness, her spokeswoman, Paula Erickson, said.

She began to get sick on June 25 after performing in a hard rain during a sold-out show at Gillette Stadium near Boston, and apologized to fans for her hoarseness in Knoxville six days later. Her voice shredded, the singer was forced the next day to pull out of a show in Louisville, Ky. Now she has announced that her doctors had informed her that she could not perform at three shows in Charlotte, N.C., and Atlanta this weekend. “I would never cancel if I were physically able to perform these shows,” she said in a statement.

Since February Ms. Swift has been on a grueling tour of 98 shows in 17 countries to promote her album “Speak Now,” which shot to the top of the charts when it was released in October. She had done 36 shows since the tour started, traveling throughout Southeast Asia and Europe before coming back to the United States in late May.

Ms. Erickson said Ms. Swift was convalescing at her home in Nashville and hoped to return to the tour on July 14, when she is slated to appear at the Bell Center in Montreal.

Source: NY Times