WTF are fans throwing their phones at celebs?
It was this week that Bebe Rexha got hit in the eye with a phone whilst performing. Yep, as she was strutting back upstage, a 27-year-old fan called Nicholas Malvagna launched his iPhone onstage and hit the star in the eye – to which she cut the show short and required stitches afterward. His explanation? “It would be funny”. Rexha later took to her Instagram account to show a picture of her bruised and bandaged face, with fans worried had it been any closer to the eye, the injuries would have been a lot worse.
“I’m good,” said the singer in her caption. The news of Rexha being hit has also reignited a situation with Bad Bunny and a fan that happened earlier in the year. The Puerto Rican rapper, singer, and producer responded after a video of him went viral, where he was seen throwing a fan’s phone. In the short clip, the star walks down the street whilst being followed by a group of fans, with one holding a phone in front of his face and videoing their interaction as she presses up against him. Bad Bunny then takes the phone and throws it in the bushes. He initially tweeted: “The person who comes up to me to say hello, to tell me something, or just to meet me, will always receive my attention and respect. Those who come and put a fucking phone in my face, I will consider it for what it is, a lack of respect, and I will treat it likewise.”
He has now said to Rolling Stone that the woman in question “got right on me, leaned directly on my body.” He felt bad about it the next day, however, and wanted to defend his actions. “Bro, that cellphone didn’t break. It exists. It bothers me that people haven’t said that,” he said. “I didn’t throw that phone into the water. I threw it into some bushes.”
The recent face-offs between fans and their fave celebs aren’t a new thing – but it doesn’t make it acceptable. Last year, the singer Steve Lacy smashed an iPhone that had been thrown at him on stage, and a few months before that, an audience member catapulted a doll that hit Lady Gaga as she sang in Toronto. Videos have been swirling of compilations of Harry Styles being hit in the nether regions, with fans purposefully aiming to hit him there on his ‘Love On Tour’ shows. This same week, it seems that the trend of getting into the faces of celebrities has reached an all-time disappointing high, with singer Ava Max being slapped after a fan got on stage in Los Angeles. The incident saw the artist hit so hard, that it “scratched the inside of [her] eye”, she tweeted. The video of Beyoncé and her husband Jay-Z getting rushed on stage by a group of fans in 2018 even inspired the TV series Swarm which was released this March in 2023 – depicting how relentless and sinister fan bases are getting these days. The megastar took the actual incident lightheartedly and jokingly kept turning around the next time she walked off stage, but her other fans weren’t impressed with the threatening goings on.
Especially after COVID, it feels like the suppressed energy of fans is finally being released, and the energetic affair is venturing into more dangerous territory. Event organisers are focusing their efforts on maintaining general crowd peace, following a slew of accidents that have happened in recent years, such as Astro World and in Seoul at Halloween. Crowd crushes can be generally managed by organisers, but there is actually no way of stopping people from throwing things onto stages. It is time that fans got their act together if they want to keep seeing their favourite celebs making public appearances. Or, they could risk celebs not wanting to interact with their fans in meaningful ways anymore.
