Although it should go without saying by now, it’s clear that New York continues to be the source of all pain. Just ask “hometown heroine” of said city, Bebe Rexha, as she recovers from an injury incurred while onstage at The Rooftop at Pier 17. The Lower Manhattan performance space is ironically described as “a stunning location for music gigs.” And yes, it certainly “stunned” Rexha on Sunday, June 18th (Father’s Day, incidentally). But not because of the views, so much as the pelting of her face by an audience member’s smartphone. That audience member was twenty-seven-year-old Nicolas Malvagna from New Jersey (unfortunately doing little to improve the already low opinion of Italian-Americans that the U.S. so relishes stereotyping in the worst ways). The irony gets more profound when taking into account that Malvagna works at a luxury dog kennel, where he apparently learned from the best how to be an absolute bitch.
Though some of the headlines and articles about the incident have described the person who threw the phone at Rexha as “a fan,” it hardly seems to be very “fan-like” behavior to do something so cruel. And, of course, not to judge a book by its cover, but the dude in question hardly looks like he truly gives a shit about the bops Rexha churns out on the regular. The vibe he gives off is more on the spectrum of: “Let me show up to this random concert and see what kind of shit I can stir up.” With regard to those bops Rexha has been turning out for years now, a new slew is presently featured on her latest album, Bebe, for which she’s been touring to promote under the Best F’n Night of My Life moniker. This being a reference to her hit, “I’m Good (Blue),” with David Guetta that samples Eiffel 65’s “Blue (Da Ba Dee).” The revamped track features the lyrics, “I’m good, yeah, I’m feelin’ alright/Baby, I’ma have the best fuckin’ night of my life.” Obviously, she did not have any such kind of night on the 18th. And yet, despite the cruelty she endured for no good reason other than the kennel worker thought “it would be funny” (and sure, there are a great many with that schadenfreude-type sense of humor), one can’t deny that this incident has been a slight boon for her career. Because, unfortunately, for whatever reason, Rexha has never garnered the level of fame that matches her output and ostensible work ethic. On par with Rita Ora in terms of being a consistently “under the radar hitmaker,” Rexha has now inarguably gained more publicity for this assault than she ever has for any of her music. An unfair reality, but a reality nonetheless. Though that doesn’t mean Rexha should exactly be “thanking” Malvagna (even if he might see it that way due to the international headline-making the entire debacle caused).
What’s more, the smartphone attack has started a somewhat faux intellectual a.k.a. insipid conversation about the ever-“toxic” nature of fandoms and the parasocial dynamics they entail. To this end, Rexha’s contribution to Eminem and Rihanna’s 2013 hit, “Monster,” would address those dynamics via the lyrics, “I wanted the fame but not the cover of Newsweek/Oh well, guess beggars can’t be choosey/Wanted to receive attention for my music/Wanted to be left alone in public, excuse me/For wantin’ my cake, and eat it too, and wantin’ it both ways.” In Malvagna’s case, however, the occurrence comes off as something of an “anti-parasocial” relationship—hating someone so much, you’d throw a phone at them. At the same time, perhaps he wanted to get her attention so badly as a “fan” that he felt “obliged” to do it in the most detrimental way possible (in addition to thinking it would be “funny”).
This pertains to the so-called trend that’s been going on of late at live shows that involves a “fan” tossing something (phones, Skittles, whatever) at the performer in question so that they might catch the celebrity’s eye (or just outright damage it). It surely must have worked for Malvagna, but at what cost? Now charged with assault in the third degree, for all one knows, Malvagna may have also brought up the overdue need for a post-9/11 sort of security for concert-going, wherein a protective divider is put up between singers and their “fans” to keep the former from being physically harmed in some unexpected way (because no concert promoter wants to deal with trying to confiscate audience members’ phones). Although many musicians actually relish the performing aspect of their profession more than any other (complete with getting “up close and personal” with their devoted listeners), it appears as though the mentally erratic nature of humanity at large (and who can blame them all with a system like this?) is increasingly a hazard to singers everywhere.
Funnily enough, earlier on in the show, Rexha had brought a fan from El Salvador up onstage to join in for “I’m Gonna Show You Crazy,” one of Rexha’s earliest singles from 2014. The title, of course, would become retroactively uncanny after Malvagna decided to do just that with his disgusting, unhinged behavior.
Although Rexha revealed her “good sportsmanship” (and sense of humor) about the matter by posting a picture of herself with a bruised eye and three stitches the following day, it’s evident that she’s been understandably shaken by the event. Which itself has set off a chain reaction among fans both threatening to harm the person who did it, and Serbians expressing delight that this was done to an Albanian (this exemplified in the comments on her “I’m good” post such as, “You asked for it—now deal with it. This will likely remain a scar. So next time, sing. And don’t mix politics!,” “You deserve it exactly what you wanted Albanian signs of your performance there you got it” and “That’s what you get when you’re claiming the territories that belong to Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia for the great Albania with that eagle symbol you made with your hands just before you got hit in the head”). Meanwhile, Saint Hoax commented on the photo, “Trust, he will be dealt with” and then proceeded to post a barrage of fan comments pertaining how undeserved it was, how parasocial relationships are “reaching an all-time high” and that this is why celebrities put up walls. That might become more literal in the future at concerts.
As for the ever-mutating, monstrous inclinations of “fans” as the twenty-first century rages on, Rexha’s brush with death à la Tai Frasier at the Westside Pavilion is now being used as the latest example of what people think they’re “owed” for paying a celebrity’s way in life. Willfully forgetting that they are ultimately nothing more than the “consumer” to the celebrity “producer.” Similar phenomena have occurred in recent months with both Doja Cat and, arguably, Taylor Swift, who appears to have been undeniably influenced by fans’ venomous reactions (including Azealia Banks’ delightfully savage one) to her dating The 1975’s Matty Healy. As for the former, her decision not to take the stage at the Asunciónico festival in Paraguay back in March due to inclement weather led fans to storm the outside of her hotel in protest. This, in turn, prompted Doja to change her Twitter name to “i quit” and then tweet, ““This shit ain’t for me so I’m out. Ya’ll take care.” Her threat to abruptly retire, of course, didn’t pan out (with the singer recently releasing a new single called, appropriately, “Attention”), but it’s indicative of an overarching sense of dissatisfaction with what it means to be a celebrity at this moment in time. Particularly a musician. For, back in the day, audiences not only seemed to have more decorum (even swooning, sex-crazed girls at Elvis or The Beatles concerts), but they, most of important at all, didn’t have access to technological devices that could be rendered lethal when launched on a sick whim.
In any event, the video footage of Rexha getting pummeled by the flying phone will likely become the stuff of solid meme gold in the future. For that, in the end, is the only “silver lining” that can be seen in any negative event.
Genna Rivieccio
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