Kelsea Ballerini punched in the face during a concert in Idaho
“Don’t throw things, you know?” Kelsea Ballerini’s plaintive plea during a recent concert was not to be The hard to follow.
The country music star was in on the recent altercation with singers being pelted by concert fans was hit in the face by a bracelet thrown by someone in the audience at their show Wednesday night in Boise, Idaho.
The musician suffered a stroke while performing her song If You Go Down (I’m Goin’ Down Too). Video posted on Twitter showed. Ballerini held her face as she stepped away from the microphone before asking her violinist to assess the damage. She briefly resumed strumming her guitar before hastily exiting the stage.
The “This Feeling” artist later returned to the stage to wrap up her performance and leave a message for the audience:
“Can we just talk about what happened?” Ballerini said in one Fan video posted on TikTok. “My only concern is to ensure everyone’s safety. If you ever feel unsafe, please tell someone close to you. If someone is pushing too hard or you just have a gut feeling, just always report it.”
She ended her speech by simply stating the obvious: “Don’t throw things, you know?”
Ballerini continued to speak about the incident their Instagram Stories on Thursday morning.
“Hello. I’m fine. “Someone threw a bracelet, it hit me in the eye and it scared me more than it hurt me,” she wrote alongside a photo of her performance. “We all have triggers and layers of fear that much deeper than what is being shown and so I walked off stage to calm down and make sure that myself, the band, the crew and the audience all felt safe to go on.” That’s all that I ever wish: For the shows to feel like a safe place for all of us.”
Ballerini’s experience is the latest in a disturbing trend of inappropriate fan behavior at concerts.
Last weekend, a fan of the singer Pink gave her mother’s ashes during a performance in London.
The Grammy winner noticed a plastic bag full of gray powder while performing “Just Like a Pill” on Sunday. After inspecting the container, she asked the fan, “Is that your mom?” and the audience member seemingly confirmed it was.
“I don’t know what to make of this,” the 43-year-old musician told the gift giver, while giggling nervously and fiddling with the cremains.
Earlier this month, pop star Bebe Rexha was injured during a performance in New York when a fan threw his phone, hitting her in the face. Rexha was transported to a hospital in stable condition Seams preserved above her injured left eyebrow.
A 27-year-old New Jersey man, identified as Nicolas Malvagna, was arrested in connection with the incident and charged with assault, New York City police confirmed to The Times.
“I tried to hit her with the phone at the end of the show because it would be funny,” Malvagna said, according to the criminal complaint.
Last week, singer-songwriter Ava Max was slapped onstage by a visitor during her show in LA.
“He hit me so hard he scratched the inside of my eye” the “Sweet but Psycho” artist tweeted. “He’ll never come to a show again. Thank you to the fans for being spectacular in LA tonight!!”
