It’s not unusual for Justin Bieber to be trending, but it’s pretty rare for fans to be on Hailey’s side. After a steamy on stage moment between SZA and Justin went viral this week, Unglossed explores why it got under so many people’s skin.
A controversial clip of SZA performing ‘Nobody gets me’ with surprise guest Justin Bieber during her Grand National Tour concert in Los Angeles has been circulating the internet over the past couple of days. He joined her on stage to perform their hit ‘snooze’, marking his first big live moment in months. The crowd went crazy as they delivered a very emotional, intimate performance. In the viral clip, SZA repeatedly lovingly grabbed his face throughout, and Bieber even kissed her hand in one tense moment, which led to many leaving comments along the lines of: “If my man kissed another girl, he ain’t my man anymore.” But, a smiley Hailey, who was spotted in the crowd seemed completely at ease with the whole thing, cheering them on and even calling them “her two favourite artists” in an Instagram story.
So, with this in mind, why on earth did so many people’s mind jump to Bieber’s actions being unacceptable? Is the way they acted completely unacceptable, and Hailey is just desperately leaning into her cool girl persona to prevent any more criticism of her somewhat controversial marriage?
For me, I think this is a prime example of us taking our own insecurities within a relationship and pushing them onto someone else. I know myself, I wouldn’t enjoy seeing my boyfriend kissing a stunning, talented woman (who isn’t me) on stage. But realistically, Hailey could be totally fine with the whole thing, in fact, she probably understands that part of being a performer is just that- performing.
Caitlin Angela is a professional dancer, and musical theatre teacher who graduated from the prestigious performing arts school The Hammond three years ago. She explains that chemistry is a massive thing all successful performers must master.
She says “Pretending to connect with someone, who you potentially barely know can be really tricky, but it’s something anyone who wants to be on stage has to learn. We had countless classes where we would have to practice conveying all sorts of emotions to each other. That could be hating someone who is your best mate, or being deeply in love with someone you have just met.
“The thing is that these things are choreographed to appear natural. I guarantee that Justin Bieber and SZA will have choreographed, or at least practiced that viral moment. They will have wanted to get that chemistry perfect. As nice as it is to think it’s all natural, organic and spontaneous, 90 percent of the time it’s not.”
And so perhaps that is why Hailey seemed so chill about her husband’s public display of affection with SZA, because like how Ryan Reynolds has to kiss women who aren’t Blake Lively onscreen in Deadpool, she knows that it’s nothing more than a scripted moment designed to spark reaction and potentially even outrage- like they say there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
“Even moments which appear sexy and really tense to viewers, don’t often feel that way to the performers involved. They are scripted and choreographed to the extent that a sexual scene or intimate dance moment can be so technical that it feels more like a sport than it does an expression of love. So there is a chance that Hailey watched the rehearsal where they practiced that moment, so it wouldn’t have been a shock or upsetting for her. She probably knows what an amazing moment that was for her husband, and knows how hard he works at his craft, so she isn’t going to let jealousy creep in too much, at least not publicly.” Caitlin tells us.
Ultimately, Caitlin says that part of dating someone in the performing arts industry is accepting that they might have to fake a deep connection with someone, and if your spouse or others believe it, that’s actually a good sign, because it means they are doing a good job. So, props to Justin and SZA really.
If you are triggered by the performance, unfortunately it’s probably a you problem. Yes, at first glance it could appear as disrespectful for him to be acting this way when he has a wife and son at home (or in this case in the crowd), but once you remember that “Justin Bieber” the performer, and “Justin Bieber” the person are two entirely different people, the viral moment is actually more impressive rather than outrageous.
