Billie Eilish was struck in the face with an object thrown from the audience during her concert in Glendale, Arizona, this past Friday, December 13, 2024. It came while she performed “What Was I Made For?”-a song off the Barbie movie soundtrack-at the Desert Diamond Arena, one of the more disturbing moments of her still-ongoing Hit Me Hard and Soft tour.
The said object, reportedly a necklace, came from the audience and hit Eilish in the face as she performed her emotional ballad. But Eilish did not even flinch; she kept on singing, never missing a single note. Fans who witnessed this said how professional and composed she was, and how she never lost her focus and just pushed through with the disruption.
Smitten, Eilish returned with one of the most gracious responses anyone might ever hear as she continued with her show with aplomb. In fact, quite besotted with her, they clapped their approval of how she dealt with it. On social media, a whole army joined in to cheer her with comments that proclaimed her devotion to her art as nothing short of professional and with stage presence.
The incident came with tensions already high at the Diamond Desert Arena. In preparation for the concert, fans experienced a number of pick-up issues with wristbands; this was most strongly true for those who purchased via third-party vendors such as StubHub and SeatGeek. The number turned away from this because of complications over verifying the tickets added to crowd unrest.
These frustrations probably contributed to a tense atmosphere, and some fans speculated that these might have played a role in the object being flung at Eilish, too. Whichever reality it is, it speaks back to a growing concern about safety for performers in the music industry.
The experience of Eilish forms part of a worrying trend in which the reckless behavior of audiences increasingly targets artists. Other performers, including Harry Styles, Bebe Rexha, and Drake, have had objects thrown at them while on stage in recent tours; the trend has many talking about safety at live concerts. Following the incident, Eilish and brother Finneas called out the fad, asking for fans to keep their love safer and more respectful toward performers, and for added protection of performers.
