A video of Billie Eilish being booed by strangers on the street just resurfaced online, and the singer is not happy. Eilish took to her Instagram Story to respond on Sunday, hoping to set the record straight. The singer did not want fans to think she was ignoring her supportive listeners.
The video in question was shot from a hastily-assembled press line outside in New York City. The singer had just finished an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and was being ushered outside by a huge retinue of security and handlers.
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Eilish waved to fans, greeted some and even stopped to hug one. However, when she continued on at her brisk pace, some booed the singer. She tried to explain the context in a video on her Instagram Story.
“The only reason I’m making this video is that I saw a video of this all happening and I just wanted to clarify what actually happened,” she said, “because if you watch the video it looks like I’m walking by a bunch of fans and completely ignoring them and not saying ‘Hi’ to them, which is not what happened.”
“I started to walk away because I realized none of these people actually cared about anything that had to do with me as a person,” she went on. “I walked over there only to say Hi, only to hug people and I got pictures of me shoved into my f–ing face. I got no love whatsoever, so I left and then I got booed and [got] called a little b— and got told I was going to lose my Grammy nominations.”
“The fact that people can switch up like that… damn. They wait outside for you and then immediately they don’t get what they want and they boo you and f—ing curse at you. I’m like, ‘Bro, I’m 17,’” Eilish concluded.
Eilish is far from the first celebrity to deal with autograph hounds with no real appreciation for her work. Just this month, filmmaker Kevin Smith had a similar viral moment when he exposed a man on the street trying to harass him into signing a pile of prints right there on the street.
Smith explained that this man had “multiple copes of each pic, an indicator of a an autograph re-seller, not an actual fan.” When he offered to sign just one of each, the man grumbled about it. Incensed, Smith tried to turn the cameras on the man, taking his picture for Instagram “to warn other folks in show business or sports about the guy.”
Fans can have strong opinions about the amount of engagement they can reasonably expect from a celebrity, especially in a public setting. However, at least now social media provides an outlet for those like Eilish and Smith to share their sides of these stories.
