Fletcher Gives An Update On Her Health and Diagnosis of Lyme disease

Fletcher fans were disappointed and alarmed when the “Undrunk” singer announced in the autumn that she would have to postpone her tour. The 29-year-old revealed at the time that she had been diagnosed with Lyme disease and needed time to recover before returning to the road. Lyme disease is a tick-borne sickness caused mostly by the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) include fever, rash, facial paralysis, and arthritis as symptoms of untreated Lyme disease.

Fletcher is now speaking out about how Lyme disease has affected her music, months after publicly disclosing her condition. “It changed my voice a lot, and my vocal cords a lot,” the singer told The Zane Lowe Show.

On September 13, 2023, Fletcher announced her health condition via an X (previously Twitter) post.

“I have recently been diagnosed with Lyme Disease,” she stated in her letter. “I started to become increasingly ill over the last couple years and just kept pushing through even though I knew there was something deeper going on.” Fletcher claimed that she was “receiving treatments” and “following doctor’s orders,” as well as learning more about her “invisible illness.”

The “Lead Me On” singer also shared some details about her health struggles with her fans. “Lyme has affected me in a variety of ways and while it has not only taken a tremendous toll on my physical body, it has also caused concern for my voice as well,” Fletcher said. “This has worn on my soul in a way that’s hard to even put words to as singing is the thing I love most in this world and my voice is my vessel for expression.”

Fletcher said in a recent interview with The Zane Lowe Show that Lyme disease has ruled her life for the past year. “I got really, really sick,” she stated. “I had to come back home and was receiving treatments the entire time, while still writing this song. I’d go to the studio, get therapy, and then return to the studio.”

The “Becky’s So Hot” singer also discussed how the condition affected her vocal abilities. “I had to let go of this idea of a perfect vocal take or a sound that I was so attached to having prior, and I really had to dig to these depths of, what does the sound of my heart sound like?” she told me. “Because I can’t operate from the way that I was before.”

Fletcher also stated that taking a hiatus from traveling and her musical career prompted her to examine herself. “I had to look at what was here in front of me and also wonder why I had allowed myself to get to this point, to push my body so far, to get so sick, and that it took me so long to recognize it, to see it, and to listen to it,” she explained.

“It feels like I made a pact with myself and I was like, ‘I will never abandon myself again,'” says Fletcher. “If I can’t show up with a regulated neurological system and know when my body is asking me to drink water or go outside in nature, whatever the needs are, the soul needs, the heart wants, the body needs. That is something I will never compromise on again.”