Ava Max says she was hit so hard by a man who rushed the stage in Los Angeles that she suffered a scratch to the inside of her eye.
Videos shared on social media show a man running towards the American pop star during the end of her set at The Fonda Theatre and appear to hit her in the face as she performs.
Moment after the man rushed the stage. Pic: @Joelr_23/PA
The 29-year-old singer can be seen flinching and holding her eye, before finishing the end of her song and leaving the stage.
She wrote on Twitter: “He slapped me so hard that he scratched the inside of my eye. He’s never coming to a show again.
“Thank you to the fans for being spectacular tonight in LA though!!.”
One of the concertgoers, Joel Rangel, 30, who had flown in from Tucson, Arizona, for the show said: “She was ending the show with her song The Motto and a fan just ran and jumped on the left side of the stage.
“As he jumped on stage some of the lights fell to the floor and he was running for Ava with his arms wide open like he was going to hug her.
“But the security ran and grabbed him and as they did she just happened to turn and his arm was out and hit her in the face.”
He said he later attended a meet and greet with Max, which was delayed by one hour due to the incident.
“She had to wear sunglasses and she was disoriented and dazed so it was sad having to talk to her like that,” he added, describing the star as looking “really out of it” when he was talking to her.
The singer – whose real name is Amanda Ava Koci – released her breakout single Sweet But Psycho in 2018 and has enjoyed further success with hit songs Kings & Queens and The Motto featuring Tiesto.
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Her debut studio album, Heaven & Hell, peaked at number two in the UK charts in 2020 and she released her second album, Diamonds & Dancefloors, at the start of the year.
The stage invasion follows a similar incident earlier this week, when singer Bebe Rexha was left with a black eye and cut to her face after an audience member threw a phone at her towards the end of her set in New York.
Rexha’s alleged attacker – Nicolas Malvagna – who told police he had thrown the phone “because it would be funny”, has been charged with assault.