Feature: Legends Of The Guilty Pleasure
What is it that happens when stars become superstars – legends?
Is it a medical condition? Is the air they breathe more rarified? Or is it that they simply become unstable, rendering them seemingly incapable of standing upright?
When Madonna fell down steps on the O2 Arena stage at February’s Brit Awards, there was a palpable draft created by the audience’s gasps. But the crowned ‘Queen of Pop’ is just one of a long line of artists who have fallen before her.
Just this week, 21-year old rising star Ariana Grande took a tumble during, appropriately enough; a performance of her hit ‘Bang Bang’, falling to her knees with a bump.
Perhaps setting the standard for televised awards shows, Iggy Azalea fell backwards off the stage at Hollywood’s Avalon Theatre during last year’s MTV Video Music Awards pre-show, only to be helped back on by a couple of security guards. To her credit, she carried on like a trooper.
Falling doesn’t seem to dent the reputation or ‘standing’ of the artists though. Azalea posted an Instagram video of her fall, accompanied by #StillFinishedtheSongTho and #TheShowMustGoOn, prompting a multitude of well wishes from fans.
Madonna’s fall prompted tweets from fellow celebrities and contemporaries; Cher, Beyoncé (a one-time faller herself) and Miley Cyrus to name just a few.
“The show must go on,” the saying goes, and rapid recovery is often essential – TOTO’s Bobby Kimball appeared at the Hammersmith Odeon on the last night of their 1982 tour with his leg in plaster to the thigh, having fallen off a German stage a couple of nights before. Jessie J was similarly gigging, with her foot in a cast shortly after ripping a main ligament in a fall at Wembley Stadium.
Rapper Buster Rhymes who nose-dived off stage in November last year, only to surface with his head covered in blood, wasn’t able to continue with his show, but kept his reputation intact, tweeting from the dressing room, "We done fell off stages and broke limbs while performing and kept going!!! We stay on Level 10.”
For Margaret Nash, a Newcastle-based Robbie Williams fan, things didn’t go so well either, as she suffered a broken arm after he fell on her in the audience.
Perhaps the unluckiest artist to join the ever-growing list of ‘fallers’ is multi-award winning American country singer Luke Bryan. As they say, two’s a coincidence, but three’s a trend. After an initial fall in North Carolina in early 2014, on his ‘That’s My Kinda Night’ tour, he returned to the same state in May and fell again, resulting in a number of stitches to his leg. After announcing, “What is it about North Carolina that makes me bust my ass?” he advised the crowd, “Please YouTube that s**t.”
In September, it was Indiana’s turn - where after his third fall, he tweeted, “Hell I gotta just pay more attention.” It’s become such a habit, that he may be writing it into future shows.
It’s by no means an exclusive club that celebrities seem to be falling over each other to join, and the seriousness of some of the injuries prove that accidents, some quite serious ones, can happen to stars – even legends.
For Madonna, who arguably in recent years has been losing fans and public support in general, her fall helped publicise her new album release and put her back into favour with the masses. It was a fall, but not a fail.
But perhaps the traditional pre-show good luck message of ‘break a leg’ ought to be updated. Or at least come with the phone number for a personal injury lawyer.
Fraser Moule