Fletcher almost lost it all

Illness brought her rock-star lifestyle to a halt. Now, she's healing in more ways than one

-  WAISS ARAMESH

CARI FLETCHER KNEW something was wrong. After finishing a series of shows in the spring of 2023, she felt deeply run down - and it wasn't just the usual aches and pains of life on the road. The singer, who performs as Fletcher, went to the doctor and learned she had Lyme disease, a bacterial infection that can cause debilitating fatigue and neurological complications. It can also result in inflammation and damage to the nerves in the voice box - meaning Fletcher was faced with the terrifying prospect of being left permanently unable to sing. "There were many, many, many moments over the last year where I was not sure if I was going to return to music," Fletcher, who has just turned 30, says.

By the time she was diagnosed, Fletcher had established herself as one of pop's most versatile stars. She can pen a heartbreak ballad or craft a raucous dance hit. She doesn't shy away from the controversial or the confessional - this is an artist who made music videos for an EP titled The S(ex) Tapes, with the ex-girlfriend the EP was about. She can talk spicy ("I just had sex with my ex / In a New York apartment/Ooh, I thought it'd be harmless)" and be the topic of conversation up and down your For You Page. Suddenly, she worried it might all be over.

Fletcher shared her diagnosis on social media and postponed some overseas dates. Marquee letters came down. Comments sections went quiet. Fletcher became a recluse. "I noticed all the other things that got really loud in the time that I got really quiet, and it was the darkness that was in my own mind," she says. "I had to sit with 'Who am I without the applause? Who am I without the analytics and the numbers?' It brought a lot to the surface about self-worth and my beliefs and my gifts and my talents."