Justin Bieber suffering from Ramsay Hunt syndrome, cancels concerts
EVAN AGOSTINI/INVISION/AP / 2021
Justin Bieber attends The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit gala in New York. Bieber leads the iHeartRadio Music Award nominations. The awards show will air from Los Angeles on March 22.
Justin Bieber is battling a rare disease that causes facial paralysis, which has forced him to cancel multiple shows.
The “One Time” singer, 28, announced Friday that he is suffering from Ramsay Hunt syndrome, which occurs when the shingles virus targets a facial nerve near an ear and shuts down movement in half of a person’s face.
“As you can see, this eye is not blinking. I can’t smile on this side of my face. This nostril will not move,” Bieber said in an eerie Instagram video in which he demonstrated the lack of movement across the right side of his face. “There’s full paralysis on this side of my face.”
Bieber had canceled multiple shows in his home country of Canada in recent days, leaving fans disappointed.
“For those who are frustrated by my cancellations of the next shows, I’m just physically, obviously, not capable of doing them,” he said Friday. “This is pretty serious, as you can see.”
Bieber said he was doing facial exercises to attempt to regain motion in the right side of his face. Ramsay Hunt syndrome lasts about three weeks on average.
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