{"id":83036,"date":"2025-10-15T21:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T21:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/83036\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T21:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T21:54:11","slug":"fan-who-defended-singer-speaks-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/83036\/","title":{"rendered":"Fan Who Defended Singer Speaks Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAniyah Saint-Surin was about to live her dream. A lifelong Billie Eilish<\/a> fan<\/a>, Saint-Surin was finally able to see the Hit Me Hard and Soft singer<\/a> for the first time in concert when Eilish began her tour at Kaseya Center in Miami on Oct. 9<\/a>. The tickets had come together at the last minute, and with the help of her aunt, Saint-Surin had thrown together a serviceable outfit, complete with a red bandanna that had been gathering dust in the corner of her room. The clothes didn\u2019t matter \u2014 she was there to see her Billie. Saint-Surin has seen countless Eilish concerts through her phone screen, so she knew what was going to happen next. After hearing Eilish sing \u201cGuess,\u201d her hit collab with Charli XCX<\/a>, Saint-Surin could see Eilish getting ready to run past the crowded barricade. This was what she had been waiting for, when Eilish would hop down from her stage and speed past a hoard of waiting fans, arms all outstretched for a second of contact. This was her moment. Eilish had just touched Saint-Surin\u2019s fingertips when everything went haywire. A fan grabbed Eilish, and the singer went down hard \u2014\u00a0slamming into the metal barricade<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cInstantly, something clicked,\u201d Saint-Surin tells Rolling Stone. Before she even realized what she was doing, she was pushing the fan away, leaving her coveted spot at the barricade \u2014\u00a0and her chance to interact with Eilish again \u2014\u00a0to loudly berate the man for grabbing Eilish so roughly. A few minutes later, she was back in her spot, shaken up but convinced no one had noticed her actions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSaint-Surin has been listening to Billie Eilish for as long as she can remember \u2014 at least six years \u2014 which for an 18-year-old, is a substantial chunk of her life. Since Eilish released her debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, in 2019, Saint-Surin has been a self-proclaimed stan, following the Los-Angeles based singer as she went from an industry newcomer to a Grammy- and Academy Award-winning powerhouse. She watched Eilish\u2019s concerts via TikToks, streamed interviews on YouTube, and of course played her music constantly. \u201cWhen tickets dropped, I got everyone, my brother, my sister, everybody on their Ticketmaster app,\u201d she says. \u201cI just kept saying \u2018I need these Billie tickets. I need them!\u2019\u201d She was still overwhelmed to be at her first ever Eilish concert, so she regaled her family with the story later that night, but went to bed thinking it would be forgotten by the time she woke up. When she fell asleep, she had about 70 followers on TikTok<\/a>. Five days later, she\u2019s reached half a million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat Surin didn\u2019t know was that the night of her concert, several clips of her yelling at the fan that grabbed Eilish slowly went viral<\/a> online, garnering posts from Finneas <\/a>and Rene\u00e9 Rapp<\/a>. Ticket reselling company StubHub<\/a> got her tickets to the next show, making sure she could finally live her dream of touching hand with Eilish. Through her tour manager, Eilish got Saint-Surin\u2019s brother a ticket to a show \u2014\u00a0and even sent Saint-Surin several pieces of merch to thank her for her actions. (The fan who grabbed Eilish has not been identified.) The viral video comes as artists have become more vocal about fan behavior at concerts that can put them in danger. In a 2023 interview with the Hollywood Reporter<\/a>, Eilish herself noted that when fans are excited, trying to grab her or throw things<\/a>, it can get scary. \u201cPeople just get excited and it can be dangerous. I have mixed feelings about it, because when you\u2019re up there it blows,\u201d Eilish said. \u201cBut you know it\u2019s out of love and they\u2019re just trying to give you something. You\u2019re in a vulnerable position, but I\u2019ve been getting hit with stuff for, like, years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNow Saint-Surin is a hero online, dubbed with the moniker \u201cRed Bandanna Girl\u201d for the red headscarf that was on her head when she went after the fan who grabbed Eilish. For her first public interview, Saint-Surin spoke to Rolling Stone about her love for Eilish, the deterioration of concert etiquette, and why it might be time for fandoms to have a reckoning in their ranks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\tHow long have you been a music lover? Do you have a preferred genre?\u00a0
I love this question. It all depends what mood I\u2019m in. I\u2019ve been listening since I can remember, and I\u2019m so deeply in love with all the genres and the feelings they give me. From pop to hip-hop and K-pop, I love it all. I love music so much. Like, what would I do without it?<\/p>\n

\n\tAs someone who loves so many different genres, what draws you in about Billie Eilish as an artist?\u00a0
I\u2019ve been a Billie stan for six years. It feels like I watched her grow \u2014 well, I did watch her grow \u2014\u00a0but it\u2019s like this connection that she has with us. Call stans crazy, but I swear it\u2019s real. What really connected me to Billie\u2019s music was the way she puts her stories and experiences and traumas into something so beautiful that helps millions of other girls like me also get through obstacles in their lives. From watching her interviews and personality, everything about her character is so captivating to me. When you\u2019re a fan and you find your artists, it\u2019s like \u2026 they just get it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHow many Billie concerts have you been to before this viral incident?
Thursday was my very first time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs someone who\u2019s been a fan for so many years, that must have felt a bit overwhelming.\u00a0
Oh, my gosh. As I walked into that arena and I grabbed that barricade, it felt like every time I closed my eyes, I was going to be in bed, and I\u2019ve never felt that way before, like it\u2019s more than a dream, one, like this is not even real. I\u2019ve watched her do this show online. But to really look at that stage and look at everybody excited around me, and I\u2019m talking to people about her, It did not feel real. Yeah, I kept falling to the ground. I kept falling to the ground.<\/p>\n

\n\tWalk me through the incident with the fan.\u00a0
OK, so Billie has two stages, a small stage and the main stage, which is a long rectangle. So she sings \u201cGuess\u201d and then \u201cEverything I Wanted\u201d and I realized, \u201cWait, this is when Billie does the crowd walk.\u201d So I rushed back to my barricade spot, and my girls saved my spot. So I get there and I just hold on. I\u2019m like, \u201cThis is it.\u201d This was my dream. This is every stan\u2019s dream, just to be able to have that second of contact with their favorite artists. It just means so much. So Billie\u2019s walking down. I have my phone [tight to my chest]\u00a0 because I want to remember this, but\u00a0 I don\u2019t want the phone in my face. But the second our fingers touch, Billie goes down. It didn\u2019t look right at all, because her head was down and she was smashed against the barricade. I try to pull her arm up and I feel a pull on me, so I turn around and it\u2019s this guy. And instantly, something clicked. It was immediate. All I thought was, \u201cYou just put your hands on this little lady? Now it\u2019s me and you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat did you do?\u00a0
All I saw was his face and I just started rushing him. I was screaming and honestly, it was a lot of cussing. \u201cWhat are you doing? What are you doing? Don\u2019t mess with Billie! Get him out of here!\u201d And then next thing I remember, what felt like six police officers were on top of him. I don\u2019t even remember the police kind of grabbing me as well, but they were actually really nice and ended up being on my side.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWere you able to enjoy the concert after the incident?\u00a0
After the security guards questioned me, and they were very nice, I went to my spot by the barricade. Everyone there was so nice. They kept my purse for me. They were asking if I was OK. They\u2019re the sweetest people ever. I love them forever. But I was so angry I couldn\u2019t really just enjoy the moment. Like, in all my concert videos after that, you can hear me screaming \u201cI can\u2019t even believe this happened! This is insane!\u201d By the end of the concert, everyone was smiling, filling their hands with confetti, and because I went by myself, I was just walking around the arena solo trying to find the exit, just yelling \u201cI can\u2019t believe that!\u201d to myself. I know I looked insane.<\/p>\n

\n\tDid you expect the incident to go as viral as it did?\u00a0
No, I was still very heated, so I didn\u2019t even go on social media. The first thing I did was call my aunt, and tell her this guy just attacked Billie and that I rushed him. I thought I was really the only one with the video. I called my mom and she was immediately like, \u201cNo more solo concerts. That\u2019s a grown man. You could have gotten hurt.\u201d I did see one video about it by the end of the night, but I thought it would be gone by morning. So I go to sleep and when I wake up, I have 2,000 new followers on TikTok. <\/p>\n

\n\tWere you concerned when you realized just how viral the clips were getting, especially the ones focused on you?\u00a0
So when I first saw the video on Twitter, I gasped. I was like, \u201cOh, my goodness, all people are going to see is an angry Black woman. Many Black women before me dealt with showcasing their emotions to disrespect, even if you\u2019re trying to defend someone that you care about. So I was really worried that I would be taken out of context and treated like that. But I\u2019m glad that people understood, and I\u2019m very thankful for the opportunity to be seen as justified, because a lot of women did not get that same grace.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow do you think fandom and obsession plays a part in incidents like this?\u00a0
That connection with stan and artist, your favorite artists \u2014\u00a0you care so deeply about them. And they care about all of the people that support them, too. I\u2019m a woman. Billie is a woman. And it felt like this man just abused his power. Billie even has a song that is about that. So to forcefully grab her for no reason, just to be aggressive, you\u2019re just out of your mind. But I feel like I would have done the same for anybody in that pit. I don\u2019t play about putting hands on people and overstepping boundaries. It was just so disrespectful. I couldn\u2019t fathom how that all went down so it led to so much anger in me. I\u2019ve never ran up on nobody before. Yes, you could call me confrontational with my words, but it was just something about that situation. I had to do something. And I see a lot of comments like, \u201cYou saved Billie. You saved Billie.\u201d Well, Mr. Police and Mr. Security \u2014\u00a0they saved Billie. But I was definitely going to give that man a piece of my mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tAs someone who identifies as a stan, do you think concert etiquette like this has gotten worse because of parasocial relationships?\u00a0
One thousand percent. People see artists in the industry and think, \u201cYou owe me.\u201d And I\u2019m even guilty of this. When I first started getting into music I\u2019m like, \u201cOh, my gosh, if I see them I\u2019ll run up and ask for a picture, give them a hug.\u201d It\u2019s because I know them, but they\u2019re looking at me and being nice but I\u2019m a stranger. It\u2019s reached a certain level of creepy, like, now people are crossing boundaries. It\u2019s getting weird. It\u2019s getting invasive. And I think it\u2019s really important to keep understanding that you are strangers to your favorite artists. Yes, you have that relationship through their music, but you don\u2019t know them personally. Yes, you watch them on live, yes, you watch all their interviews, and yes, you know every song, but you don\u2019t know anything about that person. I think that\u2019s something people really need to understand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you think stans are aware of when this kind of love and obsession gets disrespectful?\u00a0
I think so. I like to call them real stans, people who respect those boundaries. It\u2019s the people who aren\u2019t googling into their business and trying to find out what\u2019s going on in their personal life. When headlines come out about Billie \u2014 that\u2019s none of my business.\u00a0 Something I keep in mind is Billie saying something along the lines of she wishes she could tell us everything, but then it would be all over the internet. If it was only Billie stans and my girl, we\u2019d have so much fun. But I understand that when she disappears for months, I just know my girl is probably vibing because she needed that space. And I tell myself that she\u2019ll come back again. She always does.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aniyah Saint-Surin was about to live her dream. A lifelong Billie Eilish fan, Saint-Surin was finally able to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[6438,93,16047,61,60,278,53704,6116,1433],"class_list":["post-83036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-billie-eilish","tag-entertainment","tag-fan","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-red-bandana-girl","tag-tiktok","tag-viral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}