Drake and 21 Savage were forced to halt their Sunday concert at the Apollo Theater in New York after a concertgoer fell from the historic Harlem venue’s balcony section.
The person dropped from the lower mezzanine and landed in the orchestra section, the theater confirmed Monday in a statement posted on Twitter.
“Drake, Apollo and (sponsor) SiriusXM halted the show immediately when learning of a potential fan injury and standard protocols were taken,” the theater said.
“The fan and other audience members reported that they were OK. No major injuries have been reported,” the statement continued, adding that the Apollo will further investigate the incident.
The fall occurred on the second of Drake’s two nights at the iconic theater. According to Insider, the person fell about an hour and a half into the show, just after Drake welcomed 21 Savage onstage for a series of duets. The artists stopped the show after a crew member notified them of the incident.
“Just have to make sure somebody’s OK,” Drake told the audience, Insider reported. The house lights came on and security guards could be seen running through the crowd toward the area where the fan landed. The fall also dislodged a light fixture, which was then removed.
After about a 15-minute delay, the venue announced that no one had been injured, that the person was being checked on and that “the show must go on,” Insider said.
The concertgoer, whose fall was documented in footage posted on social media, reportedly landed in a section where New York Giants players were said to be seated, Page Six reported. Another source at the concert told the site that the fan didn’t actually didn’t fall, but rather “jumped into the crowd from the balcony because he was so hyped!”
The rappers then returned to perform songs from their 2022 joint album, “Her Loss,” the November follow-up to Drake’s “Honestly, Nevermind.”
“Let’s just make some noise that everybody’s OK,” Drake said between songs. Before concluding the show with “Legend,” he also thanked attendees.
“This crowd is an absolute 10 out of 10. I’m so happy with tonight. We apologize for the delays and all that s—, but thank you,” the 36-year-old said.
According to Variety’s review of Saturday’s show, the Toronto rapper started the Apollo concert with an homage to his early days writing songs at home. He transformed the stage into his bedroom and wore a “Degrassi” jersey to pay tribute to the Canadian teen drama that helped launch his career.
The “Best I Ever Had” and “In My Feelings” rapper later changed the stage into a recording studio boardroom and a New York City bodega, performing for an audience that included his closest family and friends, mother Sandi Graham and OVO co-founder and longtime producer Noah “40” Shebib, among them. He also teased even more new music and a summer tour during the show.
After the concert, other fans were upset after footage of a uniformed New York Police Department officer recording concertgoers on their way out of the venue was posted online. The clip, tweeted by New York Times pop music critic Jon Caramanica, stoked concerns about surveillance of the hip-hop community in New York and prompted NYPD to issue a statement about the footage.
“The officer depicted in the video is a Community Affairs officer involved with the 28th Precinct’s social media team. The officer was taking video for an upcoming Twitter post that will highlight local community events,” a spokesperson for the Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information said in a statement to the online publication Consequence. “The video will not be utilized for any other reason.”
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