Have Concerts Become All About That Viral Fan Moment?

Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX, Role Model — all these stars have something in common, and it’s not just that they blew up in 2024.

Each of them has leaned into a new era of viral “fan moments,” where one lucky audience member gets singled out and becomes part of a hit song in real time. These moments have become impossible to avoid on TikTok and across social platforms, which raises the question: where did this trend actually start? And in 2025, is simply being a fan no longer enough — do you now have to be the fan?

Despite their current surge online, these moments aren’t new. Taylor Swift spent much of 2023 and 2024 gifting her iconic red hat to a fan during 22 on the Eras Tour. Over a decade earlier, Justin Bieber made headlines by bringing one girl on stage each night as his “One Less Lonely Girl,” serenading her in front of thousands.

Cut to the past few months — these moments have exploded, with artists like Haim and The Beaches building them into specific songs on their latest tours. Charli XCX revived the trend during her joint Sweat Tour with Troye Sivan in 2024–2025, plucking a fan from the crowd to perform the now-famous TikTok “Apple Dance” on the arena screens. Sabrina Carpenter has her own spin: she “arrests” a fan — fuzzy handcuffs included — for being “too hot” before launching into her 2024 track, Juno. The bit has become a fan favourite and a major point of speculation leading up to each show.

Role Model has also built his tour around these moments, selecting a “Sally of the night” during Sally, When the Wine Runs Out and inviting them on stage to dance. What started as a quirky fan interaction has turned into a nightly guessing game — though increasingly, the chosen Sally is a celebrity rather than an everyday concertgoer. Kate Hudson, Natalie Portman, and others have appeared on stage, thrilling some fans who love the surprise, while leaving others wondering whether the magic is the same when the spotlight goes to someone already famous.

One fan who attended Role Model’s London show — where Sally turned out to be Niall Horan — described the moment as electric: “Being on stan Twitter, I was very much aware of the rumours going around that Niall Horan would make a surprise appearance. I was fully prepared, yet when he did, it was almost as if my mind had fully forgotten about those rumours — and I just went crazy. It felt like a perfect mix of the fangirl I was 10-15 years ago and the current mid-20s fangirl I am now coming together. It really reminded me that this fangirl thing is for life!”

Interestingly, Role Model says the idea for his fan moment came from a rumour itself. Early in the tour, fans began jokingly speculating that Sally, When the Wine Runs Out was inspired by podcast host and TikTok creator Jake Shane. When Shane happened to be in Dallas on the night of a show, he was invited on stage to dance — and the rest is history.

These moments have turned concerts into online cultural events more than ever before. Whether they’re necessary to make a show memorable is up for debate, but there’s no denying the impact: they forge a stronger bond between artist and audience and tighten the space between stage and crowd. For some, the thrill comes from the chance of being chosen; for others, it’s the excitement that lingers long after the moment goes viral.

As artists continue to embrace these interactive moments, concerts are evolving into something bigger than a setlist. They’re becoming shared cultural events, shaped as much by fans as by the performers themselves — and that shift is redefining what it means to experience live music. At the end of the day, these moments show just how much fans and artists feed off each other. Whether you get picked or not, the energy they create is part of what makes going to concerts feel so unforgettable.