Concerts and chaos go hand in hand. Many times these transcend into ugly incidents. From hurling of microphones, objects like water bottles, beer, mobile phones, soft toys, flowers and cremains, or slapping the artiste and performers on stage, anger and antisocial behaviour can go in many directions.
This week, Madonna on ‘The Celebration World Tour’ in San Francisco picked up a beer, drank some and then spat it at an audience at the concert. In another incident, a woman attending a concert threw a drink at rapper Cardi B, and the singer instantaneously threw a microphone during her act at Drai’s Nightclub in Las Vegas, while in India, singer Aditya Narayan last month concert at a college in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, snatched a fan’s mobile phone during a concert and threw it in the crowd. The singer refused to give any explanation for his behaviour. Musician Harry Styles last year was hit by an object thrown on stage during his ‘Love on Tour’ stop in Vienna. American singer Bebe Rexha was hit hard in the face with a mobile phone in New York and received stitches and taken to the hospital. Taylor Swift fans have also thrown objects such as friendship bracelets while singer Pink’s performance in London saw a fan throw ashes on stage in a pouch. During her Los Angeles concert last year, a man jumped on stage and slapped singer Ava Max while she was performing. The incident hurt her eye. In 2022, Lady Gaga was hit in the head by a doll in Canada. Even an embarrassing incident with singer Tom Jones in the Copacabana nightclub in New York in 1968 where he had to face a woman who stood up and took off her underwear and handed them to him, has been in the news for some bad concert etiquette.
Incidentally, such rampant behaviour during a concert is either to grab the artiste’s attention, while many could be maniacs hurling objects during performances or to show disrespect to the performer. This behaviour has made many fans want to be part of the shows or become famous, and at the same time, show a sense of belonging to the community of the performer.
This behaviour also depends on how the celebrity reacts or cheers up the audience. Mobile phones are often hurled at live concerts by fans with the hope that the artist will pick up, record a film and return it to the fan. Pop bands like One Direction, and musicians like Billie Eilish, Shawn Mendes and Drake have been known to do this in the past in their shows. Singer Tom Jones had reportedly picked them up and played around with them.
In fact, some incidents show how devoted a fan is that he or she can throw a rose at Harry Styles on one performance whereas Swifties have caused record-breaking seismic activity during a show in Seattle last year.
Artists also have to be apologetic at times. Often concert authorities have failed to control a stampede, and fans were made to wait outside the venue due to a lack of adequate seating arrangements. Musician AR Rahman last year apologised for a stampede at a Chennai concert, offering refund to fans due to the limited seats. He apologised and said he was ‘terribly disturbed’ by the ordeal.
