Calling all Directioners, Beliebers, Swiftie’s and fandoms alike – this story is for you. So, throw on your concert tees, play one of the many songs you know a little too well and let me tell you about my first fangirl encounter.
On Tuesday, October 9th, my sister and I won floor tickets to see the ‘Chainsmokers: World War Joy’ Tour at Scotiabank arena (shoutout to Live Nation!). The two opening acts for the concert were Lennon Stella and 5 Seconds of Summer, so you could say I was pretty excited. I’m a huge fan of all three groups, so this was the trifecta of amazing artists for me. I threw on some hoops, put on my best fringe jacket, and prepared myself for an amazing concert. Even though I was prepared for the most amazing time of my life, the concert still somehow managed to surpass my expectations. Lennon Stella gave me the feels with her piano rendition of ‘Like everybody else’, and she owned that stage like the queen she is. 5 Seconds of Summer got the entire crowd on their feet blasting ‘Youngblood’ and my new personal favourite ‘Lie to me’. Luke Hemmings stole my heart as my new favourite Australian man (sorry Liam Hemsworth, you’ve been demoted). To wrap it all up, Chainsmokers had motorcycles, fire, and a flying circular cage which Drew Taggart ran around in – there’s literally nothing more you could ask for.
It was in between sets, though, when I realized I was out of my league compared to the fans around me. I had entered the danger zone, and was not braced for what would come. It was chaos around me – elbows were thrown, verbal arguments broke out, and drinks were tossed everywhere. Even though we were already so close to the artists, all of this commotion was about pushing even closer to the stage. Personally, I was more than happy with our spots and didn’t at all understand the aggression I was seeing. It wasn’t until I heard an argument break out beside me discussing which hospital Ashton Irwin, the drummer of 5SOS, was born in that I realized this wasn’t really the danger zone–it was the fangirl zone.
Although I would consider myself a fan of many artists, I have to admit I’ve never really reached fangirl status. You might be asking yourself, “what does it even mean to be a fangirl?” To answer this question, I reached out to some friends who identify as fangirls and asked them to explain what that title entails.
“A fangirl is a term that can describe someone of any gender/pronoun and it basically means this: the band/group/singer is your entire world. In my opinion, this comes in two forms.
The first ‘fangirls’ can tell you where the artist was born, what time, how they got their start, the number of songs they have and the lyrics and harmonies to every single one. Fangirls are the ones waiting at 5am outside the concert venue, the ones who have blogs, Instagram accounts, and online debates of that band. They’re the ones that people (with good reason) avoid at concerts because they know if they get one lyric wrong they’re going to be shamed out of the venue.
The second kind is when someone feels like they have such a strong connection with the artist that they are some kind of soulmates. The artist’s work evokes so many strong emotions that you can’t help but become engulfed in their world.”
Every single fangirl is passionate and dedicated, giving unconditional support to their favourite group. Their presence at concerts is energizing and contagious, but take it from me: never, by any means, come between the stage and a fangirl.