Madeline Osburn writes for the Federalist about one country star’s response to self-absorbed, phone-clutching fans.
Miranda Lambert has had it with your distracting selfies. The country music star paused her Las Vegas concert this weekend to call out fans taking selfies while she sang her popular ballad, “Tin Man.”
“These girls are worried about their selfie and not listening to the song,” Lambert said stopping the show and pointing to two fans in the crowd. “It’s pissing me off a little bit.”
While the audience cheered Lambert on, in one TikTok version of the video, you can see fans walking out over the commotion and hear someone saying, “You don’t do that to fans. … Let’s go.”
Naysayers will call Lambert a prima donna or criticize her for derailing the show for everyone involved, but in her defense, “these girls” were already derailing it for everyone around them, including the artist who is trying to focus on performing. The presence of phones at live events, be it movie theaters or sporting events, is an epidemic in this country. Public shaming is really the only way to weed it out, as Lambert perfectly demonstrates.
In February, a photo taken the night LeBron James broke the NBA record for all-time leading scorer went viral. Not because of the record-breaking shot, but because virtually every single fan in the photo, except octogenarian Nike founder Phil Knight sitting in the front row, was more concerned about capturing a photo of the shot instead of witnessing it with their naked eye.
What does it say about a society that’s more concerned with trying to save a moment in time to our camera roll than fully experiencing said moment in time? Lots of depressing things, I’m sure. But in the case of the Miranda Lambert concert, it’s about respecting the time, space, and experience of others around you — including, but not limited to, respecting the artist you are paying to see.
