Halsey Becomes The Latest Singer Whose Fans Can't Behave Themselves At Her Concerts

We’ve talked way too many times before on this site about the growing trend of so-called fans who attend concerts and harass or attack the performers while they’re at work. For some reason, it’s become frighteningly prevalent for musicians to be pelted with items, grabbed by audience members, or even slapped. Most recently, we saw what happened when someone tried to drag Billie Eilish against her will. Now, Halsey is the latest victim, and it’s only getting more grotesque.

While performing at a concert in Washington, D.C., Halsey was singing her song ‘Is There Somewhere’ when one of the attendees reached up her skirt and groped her on her thigh and backside. Video footage of the incident (which I won’t share here for obvious reasons) shows the person grabbing at Halsey’s body before a security guard swipes her away. Halsey hasn’t commented on the situation, and I haven’t been able to ascertain whether the creep involved was kicked out of the concert.

This is obviously so disturbing. What goes through a person’s mind when they decide to do this? Does this person think they’re doing it out of love for Halsey and that the singer will respond in kind? Or do they only care about violating a celebrity’s safety for kicks? What did they think would happen?

As mentioned above, this trend is now a dishearteningly expected part of the live music scene, especially for women, although not exclusively. A man bragged about wanting to hit Bebe Rexha with his phone because he thought it’d be funny (he quickly apologised and backtracked on that claim once the courts got involved.) A man leaped onto the stage during an Ava Max gig and slapped her face.

But it’s not just a post-COVID thing (although I remain convinced that lockdown brain melt did leave way too many people utterly unable to act normally.) There’s a long and sordid history of fans grabbing or attacking performers, from Frank Zappa to Taylor Swift. There’s always been a kind of entitlement surrounding so-called fans, and plenty of people think they own celebrities. They think the concert ticket price entitles them to do stuff like this, to be the main character of the moment. And boy, it sucks for us all, right? I hope Halsey sues and that creep is one day capable of experiencing shame.