Written by Sifan, 2021 Cohort
When it comes to black singers, the first thing that comes to my mind is a concert. I’m sure we’re all no strangers to an incident that happened some time ago, the stampede at the Travis Scott concert. It resulted in 8 deaths and 300 injuries. Among those who died were two teenagers, one 16 years old and one only 14 years old. There is also a 10-year-old in critical condition. According to a video taken at the scene, Travis Scott knew that this situation would happen but did nothing and continued his performance. Moreover, recently, the famous American rapper Kanye West, accused Billie Eilish of helping a poorly breathing audience member at her show, thinking it was a veiled diss of his friend, Travis Scott.
Obviously, these two are both famous black celebrities, and this behaviour certainly casts a shadow on the already controversial reputation of black communities. According to this series, carelessness, death, and danger are labels attributed to black singers’ concerts. But I have to mention one legendary black singer, and I’m sure most people have heard of him and even bought his records, and that’s Michael Jackson.
Michael Jackson is the only black superstar whose concerts had ambulances parked outside. According to the news, after Michael Jackson’s concert in Bucharest in 1992, the concert site could only accommodate 70,000 people crammed into 72,000 people. Outside, the venue was surrounded by a crowd of fans. There were 500,000 audience members in total at the concert. The Romanian government sent troops to maintain order, and the organizers also arranged for a medical team of 2,000 people to be on standby. During the concert, about 5,000 people fainted on the spot. An average of 10 fans fainted due to excitement in less than a minute. The show lasted three days and was so large that it was the most classic, successful, yet contrastingly dangerous concert.
Unlike Travis Scott, who caused a tragedy, Michael was a magnet for fans, and he also could control such a scene. And it is also proof that not all black singers’ concerts are careless. The event could be legendary like Michael’s.
I believe the negative attributes given to the black community are unfair and unjust. I firmly believe we are all human beings, no matter our skin colour, we will always encounter good, bad and ugly among us. Especially during this Black History month, people need to look at the problem itself instead of putting meaningless colour labels on events.