Ava Max slapped mid-set, days after Bebe Rexha attack

Ava Max gets slapped onstage during her L.A. show, days after Bebe Rexha incident

Singer Ava Max was slapped mid-set by a concertgoer during her L.A. show Tuesday night.

June 21, 2023 1:42 PM PT

Singer-songwriter Ava Max was slapped by a show attendee onstage during her L.A. show Tuesday, fresh off the news that singer Bebe Rexha was hit in the face with a cellphone while performing in New York.

The “Sweet but Psycho” artist recounted the event on Twitter early Wednesday morning.

“He slapped me so hard that he scratched the inside of my eye,” she tweeted. “He’s never coming to a show again thank you to the fans for being spectacular tonight in LA though!!”

A fan video posted on Twitter captured the onstage interaction at the Fonda Theatre. Max was performing her single “The Motto” when a man, who security was attempting to restrain, ran up to her mid-choreography and slapped the singer on the left side of her face. Max continued dancing for a few seconds before running off the stage.

A fan shed more light on the slap on Twitter.

“The guy rushed on stage at the end right when the last song ended,” the fan tweeted. The security guard tackled him and literally THREW him down the stairs. Wild!!! It happened so fast.”

The user added that Max “couldn’t even open her eyes” at a post-show meet and greet.

Max’s manager, Scooter Braun, shared a photo to his Instagram stories that showed the “Kings & Queens” musician backstage after her show holding a presumably cold bottle over her injured left eye. Per TMZ, the man who allegedly slapped Max was not arrested.

The slap comes just days after Rexha, 33, on Sunday was also targeted of unruly concertgoer behavior during a New York stop on her Best F*n Night of My Life tour. While the “I’m Good (Blue)” singer was performing at the Rooftop at Pier 17, a concertgoer hurled their phone and hit her right in the face, according to footage posted on Twitter.

She was transported to a hospital in stable condition and received stitches above her bruised left eyebrow, which she showed in an Instagram post Monday.

A 27-year-old New Jersey man, identified as Nicolas Malvagna, was arrested and charged with assault for allegedly throwing his phone at Rexha, the New York Police Department confirmed Monday to The Times.

“I was trying to see if I could hit her with the phone at the end of the show because it would be funny,” Malvagna said, according to a criminal complaint reviewed Tuesday by The Times.

Times staff writer Alexandra Del Rosario contributed to this report.