Being Famous Is Probably Really Hard

I don't care what you heard about Maggie Rogers!

I imagine being famous is a lot of work. That’s why whenever someone tells me they heard that some celebrity is a bitch or an asshole or “tough to work with,” I try to give them the benefit of the doubt. Imagine your creativity being someone else’s source of income. Imagine feeling like you have a magnifying glass hovering over your every move. Imagine strangers you’ve never seen or heard of calling you a Bad Word online because they heard you didn’t say take a picture with another group of strangers when you were just trying to check out at Whole Foods. Personally, I can’t imagine that or I’ll get anxious.

I recently finished Barbra Streisand’s memoir (which I listened to as an audiobook—highly recommend), and it changed my perception of the concept of celebrity, something I’ve always tried to keep an open mind about. In the book, Streisand writes about the challenges she faced when directing The Prince of Tides (1991) and The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996). Most people knew her as a well-established actress and singer at the time, and many of them were hesitant to take her seriously as a director and listen to her needs and wants. Since Barbra Streisand’s memoir is 970 pages and the audiobook spans 48 hours and 7 minutes, I got to know her very well in the last year. She’s a woman who knows what she wants, and she’s not afraid to ask for it. Does that make her tough to work with? In my opinion, she’s just doing her job!

Over the weekend, Anne and I saw Maggie Rogers at Madison Square Garden. This was my 5th time seeing Maggie live—the first time being in 2019—and it was an honor to watch her glide across the stage in a sparkly dress in front of 18,000 people. The night before, our friends were at a bar together, and Anne and I giddily shared our excitement for the concert on Saturday when someone we had just met said, “Oh, I don’t like Maggie Rogers. I heard she’s a c*nt.” I laughed it off and said, “I don’t care, I love her. And I’ve met her before and she was nice to me.” (Maggie was also Anne’s camp counselor as a tween, which is an unrelated but hilarious fun fact.)

On Saturday when I woke up, I couldn’t stop thinking about that comment. I heard she’s a c*nt. I wonder who they heard that from. I wonder what the context was. I wonder if Maggie was asking for something pertaining to her art that seemed out of reach. I wonder if the same sentiment would’ve transpired if she was a man, but that’s a whole other story.

Her MSG show was magical. The crowd was filled with friendly faces of people who genuinely wanted to be there, and Maggie’s band had a buzzy chemistry that was palpable from the floor in GA. I don’t think I stopped smiling for the entire 2-hour set. Toward the latter half of the show, Maggie walked to the end of the stage’s runway and performed a few songs on the piano solo. As she started playing the instrumental for her song “I Still Do,” she asked into the microphone, “Can I get house lights?” The lights didn’t come on, so she asked again: “House lights?” Nothing. She then laughed and said, “Well, that’s okay. I got pretty much everything else I wanted, so.”

I’m sure there was so much she wanted for that night. If I was performing a sold-out show at MSG, I imagine I’d want everything to be perfect too. Would people think I’m tough to work with if I wanted everything to be perfect? Wouldn’t I just be doing my job? I kept wondering.

As she continued playing the notes to “I Still Do,” Maggie spoke to the crowd in a way that made it feel like we were in a venue of 500 people instead of 18,000. She went on to say (and I wrote this in my Notes app so I wouldn’t forget), “In Rock Band, arenas are the final level of the video game.” She looked around at the crowd and said, “So thank you for making it to the end of the video game with me.” As she listed all the smaller New York venues she’s played in—Bowery Ballroom, Baby’s All Right, Irving Plaza, to name a few—everyone around us in GA was smiling. Maggie mentioned how Bowery Ballroom was such a major goal for her a few years ago. To her, it felt like playing at Bowery Ballroom was making it, and here she was playing two consecutive sold-out nights at the world’s most famous arena. I was emotional hearing her say all of this. Even though I don’t know her, I was so proud of her.

We can’t change how other people perceive us or how they talk about us, but we can change how we talk about them. I heard Maggie Rogers got everything she wanted!!!!!

April 20, 2019

October 19, 2024 <3