An Oregon woman is suing Justin Bieber for $9 million for damaging her hearing—not with his own golden pipes, but by using them to incite a shrieking fan at a 2010 concert. Stacey Wilson Betts, who apparently had no idea that a Bieber concert would involve screaming, is claiming the singer “acted as a sound conductor” as he rode a heart-shaped steel gondola into the crowd, encouraging “a frenzy of screams by continuously waving his arms in a quick and upward motion.” Somehow Betts—not Bieber nor anyone else in the crowd—caught the brunt of those vocal gymnastics, and she says she now suffers from “hearing loss, severe tinnitus, and hyperacusis (an oversensitivity to certain frequency ranges of sound) in both ears. She’s seeking the very specific sum of $9,230,000 in damages, plus legal fees.
If this goes to court, it could spell trouble for notoriously loud bands like My Bloody Valentine, stadium JumboTrons encouraging fans to get loud, and any hokey performer who tells audiences, “I can’t hear you!”