Cody Simpson Reveals Vocal Cord Hemorrhage, Cancels Dates While Recovering

Cody Simpson says a “serious hemorrhage” on one of his vocal cords has forced him into medical treatment and strict vocal rest, throwing a wrench into the rollout for his next album.

On Monday, May 11, the Australian singer shared the news on Instagram, opening with a line that made clear this was never something he had planned to talk about publicly: “I originally thought I could keep this private but it’s come time I share what I’ve been going through.”

In the post, Simpson said he was diagnosed with the hemorrhage “just over a month ago,” and traced it back to singing through a sinus infection he did not realize he had. What he had taken for simple exhaustion, he wrote, was something more serious. He kept showing up to the studio anyway, until, in his words, “one day I could no longer sing.”

That’s meant weeks of going “on and off vocal rest,” along with cancelled TV and radio appearances. The setback has also kept him from properly promoting “Baby Blue,” his single that arrived in March, and from finishing the album and “polish[ing] up the next singles.”

Simpson said he has now been prescribed another two weeks of silence in the hope of avoiding surgery, which would require a much longer recovery. For the moment, he’s back in the studio, but only as a lyricist. He’s working with collaborators in mute sessions, mapping out melodies on guitar before eventually singing them himself again. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” he wrote.

The singer added that he plans to share more of the recovery process with fans rather than keeping it private. That openness drew supportive comments on the post from listeners who have been following his return to music.

The timing is especially frustrating because Simpson has been trying to move ahead with the next phase of his recording career after his self-titled fourth studio album in 2022. That album arrived during a four-year stretch in which he stepped away from music to pursue competitive swimming, a run that included qualification for the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the 2024 Australian Olympic Trials before he announced his retirement from the sport.

In March, BMG announced that it had signed Simpson in partnership with Range Music for future releases. At the time, Simpson said he had already been back in the studio for almost a year after his swimming career, experimenting with new ideas and looking for something that felt fresh. “Coming back to music I decided I only wanted to do it if I could go in and have the best time ever everyday,” he said in a statement.

See Simpson’s post below.