Billie Eilish Weighs in On Fans Throwing Objects at Artists on Stage: ‘People Just Get Excited and It Can Be Dangerous’
Another weekend, another hail of objects hurled at artists on stage. In the concerning trend of fans heaving objects at performers during concerts, Harry Styles and Drake became the latest acts to get some unwanted action from the front section when they were hit with projectiles in the middle of their recent shows.
Billie Eilish knows a thing or two about being pelted and speaking to The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet at the world premiere of Barbie on Sunday (July 9) in Los Angeles, the singer said she gets the impulse behind the action, but that it’s definitely not cool.
“I’ve been getting hit on stage with things for like, literally, six years, I don’t know why this is like new,” said Eilish, who contributed the song “What Was I Made For?” to the Greta Gerwig-directed film’s soundtrack. “People just get excited and it can be dangerous.”
Brother and collaborator Finneas added that he thinks fans aren’t always trying to land a direct hit on the act when they throw, say, a sex toy on stage — as was the case recently at a Lil Nas X show, where the rapper reacted with a joke when a fan launched an anatomical bedroom aid at him during his Lollapalooza Stockholm set. And it’s not like they’re going all 19th century and hurling tomatoes and rotting fruit at performers, he noted.
Billie said it’s mostly smart phones being pitched in an effort to get a selfie. Either way, she said, “it’s absolutely infuriating when you’re up there. I have mixed feelings about it, because when you’re up there it blows. But you know it’s out of love and they’re just trying to give you something. You’re in a vulnerable position, but I’ve been getting hit with stuff for like years.”
Whatever the purpose, Finneas looked dead into the THR cameras with a very important message: cut it out. “Don’t do it — we get it, but don’t do it,” he said, with Billie backing him up. “Don’t throw things on stage, but we love you; it’s very sweet,” she said.
The siblings weighed in following a rash of recent incidents in which overzealous fans have been breaching the stage with foreign objects. In addition to Styles getting hit in the face with something on Saturday during his Vienna show and Drake taking a cell phone to the arm last Wednesday during the Chicago kick-off of his tour with 21 Savage, several other stars have suffered similar fates lately.
Bebe Rexha was hit in the face by a phone during a New York show, while Kelsea Ballerini was struck with a bracelet, with both acts leaving the stage briefly following the incidents; Rexha was taken to the hospital after her June 18 phone episode, which opened up a cut above her eye.
Watch Eilish and Finneas discuss concert etiquette below (begins around 2:10 mark).
Gil Kaufman
Billboard
