Billie Eilish pauses another show after concerns over fan safety
"Take a breath," she told fans at New York's Madison Square Garden
Billie Eilish stopped another of her shows this weekend to ensure the safety of fans in the crowd.
Eilish was praised earlier this month after she stopped her concert in Atlanta, Georgia on February 5 to assist an audience member who was having breathing difficulties.
The singer, who is currently on her ‘Happier Than Ever’ world tour, noticed a fan looking distressed during the show. “Do you need an inhaler? Who needs it?”, she asked pointing into the crowd.
On Friday (February 18) at a show at New York’s famous Madison Square Garden, Eilish once again asked fans to take a minute to ensure the safety of all of those around them at the gig.
As TMZ report, at one point in the show Eilish told fans to “take a breath” and those at the back of the floor section to “step back” and give “everyone some room”.
The responsibility on artists to look out for audience members has become increasingly under the spotlight following the tragedy at Travis Scott’s Astroworld festival last year which saw 10 people die from compression asphyxia after a crowd surge.
The rapper has been named in almost 2,800 lawsuits seeking restitution for those injured at the festival in his hometown of Houston, Texas.
After the incident at Eilish’s Atlanta concert, she was criticised by Kanye West, who believed that Eilish’s comment about making sure the crowd were safe was an indirect criticism of Travis Scott and his alleged lack of care for fans in trouble at Astroworld, after she told the crowd: “I wait for people to be OK until I keep going.”
In response, Kanye took to Instagram, writing: “Come on Billie we love you please apologise to Trav and to the families of the people who lost their lives no one intended this to happen.”
“Trav didn’t have any idea of what was happening when he was on stage and was very hurt by what happened and yes Trav will be with me at Coachella but now I need Billie to apologise before I perform.”
Billie then responded in the comments section of the post, saying: “Literally never said a thing about Travis. Was just helping a fan.”
Billie Eilish will be continuing on her US tour until April, before she embarks on a UK and European tour in June.
She is also set to perform at Glastonbury in June, making her the youngest ever solo headliner.