As one of her singles climbed to the top of the pop music charts in the United States, Rihanna canceled a second show Wednesday in Sweden because of illness and exhaustion. The pop diva has been touring without a break since early June, performing nearly 60 concerts on three continents to promote her album “Loud” (Def Jam). A concert promoter for Live Nation in Sweden, Kristofer Akesson, told the Associated Press that Rihanna, who is 23, “is exhausted and doesn’t feel well.” Her publicist in New York said she was suffering from the flu. The singer called off a concert in Malmo in southern Sweden on Monday, and sent a photograph of her arm with the tube from an intravenous drip to her followers on Twitter with a note saying, “Sorry Malmo!!!” She was not hospitalized as some news outlets reported. She performed Tuesday night in Stockholm, then called off a second performance on Wednesday night after consulting with a doctor. Rihanna joins several high-profile performers who have cancelled major concerts for health reasons this year, among them Adele, who is undergoing surgery to repair bleeding in her vocal chords, Taylor Swift, who had a bout of laryngitis, and Caleb Followill, the lead singer for Kings of Leon, who cancelled half his band’s tour to rest his voice. Rihanna’s decision to cancel two gigs came as her single, “We Found Love,” featuring Calvin Harris, rose to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. It was the 11th No. 1 single she has recorded, giving her the same number as Whitney Houston and more top singles than Stevie Wonder or Janet Jackson.
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