As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, Justin Bieber has canceled the remainder of his Purpose World Tour.
This includes 15 shows and concerts at some of the largest stadiums in North America. Needless to say, many fans are extremely disappointed. Who wouldn’t be? I myself would be gutted if a favorite artist of mine canceled a show I had been so looking forward to. Especially considering Bieber has a young fan base, I do feel bad.
But that said, I completely defend Bieber’s choice to cancel his tour. And this goes out to any performer who makes this kind of choice, for health reasons or otherwise.
John Mayer agrees and came to Bieber’s defense. He tweeted the following:
When someone pulls remaining dates of a tour, it means they would have done real damage to themselves if they kept going. 1/2
— John Mayer (@JohnMayer) July 24, 2017
We’ve lost so many great artists lately. I give Justin ???? for realizing it was time to call it. You should too. 2/2
— John Mayer (@JohnMayer) July 24, 2017
Whatever the reason is, performers have the right to cancel shows. In fact, I argue that they don’t even have to give us a reason. Simply put, the expectations we have for performers and stars in our society is completely ridiculous.
I’m trying not to preach here, I have been guilty of it myself but am trying to get better. But essentially, we have such high expectations for celebs, and often think they owe us something. I think we have the tendency to have the mindset of “we made you famous” or “we paid for your music”, so you owe us this. But the thing is, they don’t.
Despite being superstars, celebs like Bieber, Adele, and others are not superheroes. They do not have physical and mental capabilities beyond what we as fans have. How can it be healthy for a person to be on tour for two years straight, doing hundreds of shows across 6 continents? I go for a long weekend vacation and I need a week to recover. The strain on their voices and just the mental energy this kind of lifestyle must take is exhausting just to think about.
And even if a performer chooses to cancel performances for other reasons, it is totally fair. We actually don’t know for sure why Bieber chose to end his tour. Medical reasons are not the only acceptable excuse. In fact, he and anyone else, do not need an excuse.
This kind of unrealistic expectation expands to other celebrities as well.
Actors like Chris Pratt and Emma Watson have recently stated that they won’t take selfies with fans out in public anymore, for they do not want to reveal their locations and want to live as normally as possible. Somehow, people are mad about this.
Pitch Perfect and Dear Evan Hansen star Ben Platt recently tweeted a defense of why he doesn’t come to the stage door after every Broadway performance.
— Ben Platt (@BenSPLATT) July 3, 2017
It is ridiculous he even had to write this. Honestly, how dare people message hateful comments at him for not taking a selfie with them, or whatever their reasoning was.
I’m not sure why it is, but it seems like now more than ever, fans feel like stars owe them these kinds of things. Is it the rise of social media, and people wanting to post concert videos and celeb selfies? Could be. But generally speaking, the expectations we have of performers in our society is unrealistically high. They are people too, just wanting to live their lives as normally as possible.
We’d all love to see every concert of the artists we love and snag a selfie with our favorite actor. But we have to remember, no one owes us anything. Long story short, you do you Biebs.
