Aniyah Saint-Surin was amped to secure pit tickets the day of Billie Eilish’s first Miami show on Oct. 9. The 18-year-old says she walked into the concert at the Kaseya Center saying to herself, “This will be my time.”
Her prediction was right. Hours later, the high school senior would go viral for her fast-acting bravery and earn a name within Eilish’s fandom: The “red bandana girl.”
At the concert, Eilish stepped down from the stage and walked through the crowd, greeting fans with smiles and high-fives. Then came a shocking moment: Eilish’s outstretched arm was yanked by concertgoer. He pulled her into the crowd on the other side of the barricade.
The concertgoer has not been identified. The Miami police Department said in a police department that the individual was “ejected” from the venue, NBC News reported. There are no criminal charges pending, police said.
Saint-Surin witnessed the altercation happen. “I just see her get swallowed below,” she tells TODAY.com. “She’s supposed to be walking past me, not down.”
Saint-Surin was immediately disturbed by what had happened. “I can’t believe this just happened,” she says. “I can’t fathom somebody just doing that in front of me right.”
Saint-Surin tried to help Eilish up, then noticed the person who had grabbed her was also standing nearby. Saint-Surin decided to confront him.
“Oh, so you want to touch people?” she remembers thinking. “Now, it’s me and you. Now you get a piece of my mind.”
Saint-Surin later spoke to Miami Police Department and showed her a video she had of the incident, which she posted Oct. 14 on her social media accounts.
But she wasn’t the only person who had captured the moment. Videos of Saint-Surin confronting the man started to circulate on social media, giving her the nickname “red bandana girl.”
Fans found her TikTok account and jumped her following from 60 to about 700,000. Singer-songwriter FINNEAS, who is also Billie’s older brother, posted on his Instagram story on Oct. 10, “Red bandana girl from last night’s show rules.”
Saint-Surin realized she’d gone viral at her high school’s pep rally. Her “mind started to crumble” thinking of her followers. But the attention excited her, too. “I’m like yes, FINNEAS sees that I don’t play about your sister,” she says.
Stubhub ended up inviting Saint-Surin to Eilish’s Oct. 10 show, where she says she made eye contact with Eilish from the other side of the barricade. On Night 3, which she also attended, she says Eilish smiled at her. At the concerts, Saint-Surin got recognition of her own from fans who had seen the viral video.
Saint-Surin is also grateful for the merch Eilish’s team sent her as a “token of appreciation.”
“Then she wrote me a note,” she says. “So sweet.”
Looking back, Saint-Surin reflects on concert etiquette, especially at at time when behavior like concertgoers throwing things at performers is a trend. She hopes the moment encourages people to “enforce more respect (toward) an artist when they’re performing.”
As for what made her the type of person who would intervene when she sees “disrespect,” in her words?
“Mama definitely raised me right, yes,” she says.
