YOSHIKI recovered enough from his collapse to make it to New York for the Global Citizen Festival, only for the entire Central Park event to be cancelled as a nor’easter approached the city. The X JAPAN leader has since revealed that his set would have included ‘Red Swan’ and a surprise performance with special guests.
His PR office announced on September 19th that he had collapsed in the United States from excessive fatigue and was receiving intravenous treatment, forcing him to cancel appearances in Japan. His Central Park date remained on the schedule, with his team saying he was prioritising his recovery for the performance.
Posting on X (formerly Twitter) within days of the announcement, YOSHIKI said he had resumed rehearsals for the Central Park performance while continuing to take care of his health. He arrived in New York on September 24th.
Global Citizen cancelled the festival on September 25th, a day before it was due to take place, after consulting the City of New York and NYC Parks. Organisers said they had considered multiple alternatives, but forecasts made it unsafe to bring tens of thousands of attendees, artists, crew, staff, and the equipment required for the event onto the Great Lawn. It was the first cancellation in the festival’s 14-year history.
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The decision came as a nor’easter moved closer to New York, with city officials warning of two to three inches of rain, wind gusts of 40 to 50mph, and coastal flooding. New York City Emergency Management issued a travel advisory covering September 25th to 27th, while Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency for New York City and Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties.
In a statement shared on X, YOSHIKI said he was “so heartbroken” by the cancellation. “After months of preparation, traveling around the world, and collapsing a few times, I was so ready to rock 60,000 people”, he wrote.
Alongside X JAPAN’s ‘ENDLESS RAIN’, which he had invited the Central Park crowd to sing with him, YOSHIKI had planned to perform ‘Red Swan’, the YOSHIKI feat. HYDE track used as the opening theme for Attack on Titan Season 3, and share what he called a “VERY, VERY SPECIAL SURPRISE” with special guests. His official site later described them as guests “far beyond imagination”. None have been named, but YOSHIKI said he hopes to share what they had been creating at a later date.
YOSHIKI’s appearance would have been the first by a Japanese solo artist at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park. It would also have been his second Global Citizen performance of the year, following his headline set at the organisation’s first live music event in Japan at Tokyo International Forum in June.
After returning to Los Angeles from New York on September 28th, YOSHIKI reflected on the cancelled performance in another post.
“I just got back to LA from New York. I put everything I had into preparing for this day. It hurts so much that the show was cancelled. I couldn’t stop crying on the flight home. But I’m looking ahead and I’ll keep going. New York, I will be back. To everyone who’s been supporting me, thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
No replacement date for YOSHIKI’s cancelled performance has been announced.
About YOSHIKI
YOSHIKI is a Japanese composer, classically trained pianist, rock drummer, and producer best known as the leader and principal songwriter of X JAPAN. He grew up in Tateyama, Chiba, and began playing music with childhood friend Toshl while still at school. After their earlier band Noise ended, the pair formed X in 1982. YOSHIKI established Extasy Records in 1986 to release the band's music, with independent album 'Vanishing Vision' following in 1988 before X made its major-label breakthrough with 'Blue Blood' in 1989. X's combination of speed and heavy metal, elaborate visual presentation, and long-form orchestral ballads helped establish the movement later known as visual kei. With YOSHIKI on drums and piano, the band became an arena-scale act in Japan, broke up in 1997, and reunited in 2007. Their later international appearances included Lollapalooza in 2010, Madison Square Garden in 2014, Wembley Arena in 2017, and Coachella in 2018. YOSHIKI wrote or co-wrote much of the catalogue, including 'Kurenai', 'Endless Rain', 'Art of Life', 'Tears', and 'Forever Love'. His solo work has long run in parallel with X JAPAN. The orchestral album 'Eternal Melody' arrived in 1993, produced by George Martin and performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, followed by 'Eternal Melody II' in 2005 and 'YOSHIKI CLASSICAL' in 2013. He composed 'Anniversary' for the 1999 national tenth anniversary celebration of Emperor Akihito's enthronement, wrote music for Expo 2005 Aichi, and created the official Golden Globe Awards theme introduced in 2012. His catalogue also spans film and television work, production for other artists, and collaborations with performers including Sarah Brightman, St. Vincent, HYDE, and Nicole Scherzinger. YOSHIKI expanded his group work again in 2022 by forming THE LAST ROCKSTARS with HYDE, SUGIZO, and MIYAVI, followed by an international debut tour in 2023. The same year he made his feature-film directorial debut with YOSHIKI: Under the Sky and took his classical show to Tokyo Garden Theater, Royal Albert Hall, the Dolby Theatre, and Carnegie Hall. TIME included him on its TIME100 list in 2025. After a third cervical-spine operation in October 2024, YOSHIKI returned to full-scale concert activity with sold-out YOSHIKI CLASSICAL dates at Tokyo Garden Theater in April 2026 and two sold-out nights at Walt Disney Concert Hall in July. A live version of 'Forever Love' with Josh Groban followed in August, his first release under the YOSHIKI name since 'Red Swan' in 2018. In September 2026, his label Melodee signed a global distribution and publishing-administration agreement with BMG covering new solo releases and parts of his existing catalogue.
