A distraught Cher Lloyd performs at the V Festival"X Factor U.K." finalist Cher Lloyd may be making serious inroads in America, where her single "I Want U Back" has gone top 10 on iTunes and cracked pop radio's top 40. But over in her native England, the Season 7 starlet is still a very polarizing figure--so much so that when she performed at Britain's V Festival this past Sunday, her set had to be cut short after one cruel concertgoer horrifyingly hurled a urine-filled bottle at her. So not cool.
Cher, whose "bratty" persona earned her many detractors when she competed on "The X Factor U.K." two years ago, was reportedly in the middle of her second song at the Essex musicfest when the bottling occurred, and she understandably ran offstage in tears. The 19-year-old, ever the trooper, later returned to resume her performance (against her management's wishes), although she was visibly upset as she told the rowdy crowd, "It's hard enough being up here, but it's not nice having bottles of piss chucked at you." However, when even more bottles (thankfully not filled with any bodily fluids, but still not too pleasant) were lobbed in her direction, it was decided that she should end the gig early, for her own safety's sake.
Cher later tweeted: "Thank you so much for all the nice messages, shame that a couple of people had to ruin it, unfortunately a glass bottle got thrown at me on stage.Tomorrow is another day,big love to my brats!!! Xx."
Cher, whose debut album is interestingly titled Sticks + Stones, has had her unfair share of haters since she competed on "The X Factor U.K." in 2010, and she even started a campaign against cyberbullying after she was repeatedly harassed online. But when she spoke to Yahoo!'s Reality Rocks earlier this year while making her U.S. debut at South By Southwest, she seemed to have come to terms with this downside of sudden fame. "I feel like I've gotten a lot stronger with it now," she stated. "I'm happy with myself, I'm happy with my music, and I feel like I've got a good enough team to back me up as well. And I've got loyal fans, so I don't let it get to me that much anymore."
News like this seriously pisses me off--pun intended or not. While festival attendees are certainly entitled to dislike Cher Lloyd and her music if she's not their cup of English tea, that doesn't mean they have the right to violently attack her (or any other performer) in such a disgusting manner. But the good news is, with Cher's star rising in the U.S., it's doubtful that she will have to worry about encountering such unhygienic viciousness on this side of the pond.
Check out an exclusive Yahoo! Music performance by Cher, under much safer and more sanitary conditions, below. Stay strong, Cher!
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