Hurricane Sandy: John Legend, Rita Ora, Grimes, The xx Cancel Northeast Concerts

Robin Van Lonkhuijsen/AFP/Getty Images

Multiple concerts due to take place in northeastern United States early this week were postponed or canceled over the weekend as promoters and fans in the area including New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. prepared for the disruptive and potentially devastating impact from the imminent arrival of Hurricane Sandy.

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Among the larger concerts affected were John Legend, who canceled his Sunday performance at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn; the xx, who postponed the remainder of their current U.S. tour -- including dates in the Bronx, Philadelphia and Baltimore -- until till 2013; Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def), who canceled his Sunday show at the Apollo Theater in Harlem; and Brandi Carlile, who postponed her Sunday and Monday shows at the Beacon Theatre, New York.

Also canceled were Ghostface Killah and Sheek Louch at New York's Highline Ballroom and Grimes' Sunday night show at Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg; Shawn Colvin at New York's City Winery was postponed, and Trey Anastasio also postponed his Sunday night show at Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY until November 5.

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In Philadephia, the Rita Ora/Iggy Azalea/DJ Havana Brown show at the Trocadero and the Electric 6 show (with opening act Little Hurricane) at Milkboy were both canceled.

The Broadway League announced that all Broadway performances on Sunday and Monday are canceled.

New York and New Jersey government officials have warned locals to stay indoors for large parts of Monday and early hours of Tuesday unless on essential travel due to the high speed winds and rising waters.

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Many businesses in the area are shutting their offices for those days and asking employees to work from home, including Sony Music, which sent such a message to its employees earlier today.

The storm disruption, which affects several of the biggest U.S. cities could have some impact on sales for artists whose releases still enjoy strong physical-CD sales, like Taylor Swift, whose Red album was already on course to break the 1 million mark in its first week. Red had already sold more than 900,000 copies by Thursday, so it seems likely to have hit the million-sales mark by the time the chart's reporting period ends Sunday.

Twitter: @billboardbiz