Fiona Apple Goes On Tirade After Heckler Targets Her Weight
From the archive: published Oct 5, 2013, 13 years ago. Details may have changed since.
Fiona Apple doesn’t take too kindly to unsolicited comments about her weight. Especially in the middle of a show.
The singer was performing in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday for the first night of her new tour. She had only two songs left when a woman called out to the stage, “Get healthy, we want to see you in 10 years!”
Fiona Apple, who was looking very thin, stood up from her piano and grew visibly upset.
“I am healthy,” she shot back to the woman before launching into a string of expletives. This prompted some other audience members to join in — one of them calling her a “has been” — but many other audience members were supportive of the singer.
The incident came after what has been a difficult year for Fiona Apple. In 2012 she was arrested for hashish possesion in Texas, and TMZ ripped Fiona for her on-stage explanation of the arrest.
Last November she canceled a series of shows so she could tend to her dying dog.
David Greenwald of OregonLive.com said that before the incident, Fiona looked thrilled to be back on stage to perform again.
“[Fiona] seemed giddy to be back on stage,” he wrote. “Beyond giddy, perhaps: between songs, her banter was rushed, sometimes fragmented, and peppered with profanity.”
Fans at the show seemed shocked by the interruption.
Just witnessed a #FionaApple meltdown in #Portland. Some #bodypride feminist called her thin and unhealthy and Fiona stopped the show.
— Sean H. (@seanh78) October 4, 2013
The heckler from Thursday’s show was eventually kicked out of the arena and Fiona Apple finished her show.