Pink, Bebe Rexha, Harry Styles: Why are fans throwing objects at musicians on stage?
Grammy-nominated country singer Kelsea Ballerini has become the latest artist to be hit by an object thrown by a fan, following a string of recent similar incidents.
Ballerini temporarily stopped her show and walked off stage after she was struck in the face by an unidentified object while performing in Idaho on Wednesday.
Fan footage shows Ballerini, 29, playing the guitar before being hit, and she is forced to face away from the crowd.
After a costume change, she addressed fans on stage: "Can we just talk about what just happened?
"All I care about is keeping everyone safe... So if you ever don't feel safe, please let someone around you know."
The incident comes after pop star Bebe Rexha was hit in the face and injured by a mobile phone hurled from the audience at a hometown show in New York City recently.
A man was arrested after the singer-songwriter was taken to a hospital, and a bruise and bandage were visible above her left eye in social media posts.
“I’m good, yeah, I’m feelin’ alright,” she sang in a TikTok video, taking a line from “I’m Good (Blue),” her recent hit with DJ David Guetta.
Pink has also fallen victim to the trend, after getting someone's ashes thrown at her in a recent concert - she was also handed a wheel of brie.
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The spectator who threw the ashes at the star claimed it was their mother, as Pink responded: "I don't know how I feel about this."
Elsewhere, singer Ava Max said an alleged stage invader “slapped her so hard” during a show in Los Angeles that it scratched the inside of her eye.
Videos shared online from the gig at The Fonda Theatre last week showed a man appearing to hit the US pop star in the face while she was performing.
She can be seen flinching and holding her eye after the incident before she leaves the stage soon after.
Following the show, Max wrote on Twitter: “He slapped me so hard that he scratched the inside of my eye. He’s never coming to a show again.“
Even global superstar Harry Styles has looked to be in pain after objects are repeatedly being thrown at him throughout his international tour, Love on Tour.
Why might this be happening?
David Schmid, a pop culture expert at the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences, said the idea of tossing items on stage historically goes back to the etymology of the word "fan."
Short for fanatic, it was a term originally associated with religious devotion, and many tend to see celebrities "as if they are gods or at least semi-divine beings," he said.
“From that perspective you can read the stage as a kind of altar and the objects that are thrown onto the stage as devotional objects,” Mr Schmid said.
The role of social media has also changed the nature of the items being thrown onstage.
Rather than toss a note, some are hurling heavier items on stage, hoping the performer will grab it and record a moment for them.
With such behavior seemingly becoming more mainstream, venues, promoters and artists might look to reinforce security.
David Martin, CEO of the Featured Music Coalition, a UK trade body that represents music artists, said that despite the recent string of high-profile incidents, "the vast majority of events go on safely".
"Venues and promoters work hard to protect artists as well as fans.
"I don’t think there’s a pattern emerging here at this point but we’ll obviously keep a close eye on what’s happening."
He told ITV News that artists' safety when they're performing is "paramount".
"Artists need to be safe in their places work which is at these events and on the stage.
"I think it’s easy for people to forget that artist’s are at work when they’re having fun and that’s what fans do to unwind but artist need to be safe in their place of work," he added.