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‘You picked the wrong woman’: French singer Rebecca Baby assaulted at gig, performs topless as protest
After being groped during a performance, French singer Rebecca transformed her trauma into a protest by stripping off her top
How does a woman reclaim her space when it’s been taken from her — right in the middle of doing what she loves? That’s the question singer Rebecca Baby, frontwoman of the French rock band Lulu Van Trapp, raised this week in a powerful act of protest. After being sexually assaulted during a live performance, she responded not with silence, but with action — by going topless on stage and turning her trauma into defiance.
The incident occurred on Saturday at the Le Cri de la Goutte festival in Menthières, France. As part of her usual routine, Rebecca descended into the crowd — mic in hand, immersed in the moment. But what followed was anything but routine. “In the middle of the show, as I often do, I went down into the pit to sing one of our songs among the audience. Immediately, I didn’t feel safe—there were only super excited men, they grabbed me, one held my arm and wouldn’t let go. And then, while I had one hand holding my mic and the other immobilized by this guy, another grabbed my breasts. A ridiculous gesture, so fast, disgusting. We stopped everything,” she posted on her Instagram stories on Tuesday.
Shaken but determined not to let the violation define the night, she got back on stage and called out the perpetrator: “The guy had better get out of the show.” But faced with silence from the crowd, she stood at a crossroads. “Either I stop the concert and everyone loses (especially me), or I continue. Either I transform my aggression into his shame, into our strength. Or we change the narrative.”
So she made a radical choice: she removed her top and kept performing. “I will stay topless until it becomes normal, until being like that is completely desexualised,” she told the audience. On Instagram two days later, she explained why. “It’s not our clothes that are the problem. It’s them and their frenzy of possession, of destroying what they cannot possess.”
She further said, “That’s why they picked the wrong woman — one with a mic in her hand. You paid to see a concert? Now you’ll pay to look me in the eye and face the consequences of your actions. I know they stood there, stunned, hypnotized by their own insignificance. Yesterday, we gave them a demonstration of power they won’t soon forget. And we gave it to ourselves too, this demonstration — we were amazed by it.”
Rebecca expressed gratitude to her bandmates, the fans who supported her, and even the men who questioned whether it was still their place to stay and watch the show. “Thanks to the festival team for reacting well (I’m not blaming them for the 3 a**holes out of 2000 attendees) and to the security staff who pulled me from that hellpit with professionalism. Thanks to my brothers on stage—Max, Manu, Nico—never have I felt your unconditional support more. I feel incredibly lucky to have you by my side. You are true allies,” she said.
Her message is clear, this wasn’t a performance. It was an act of feminist resistance. “We’re way behind on this, especially considering rock is supposed to represent a music of liberation. Let’s reclaim space, both on stage and in the pit. I promise it will be our priority at future concerts,” she wrote, signing off with a rallying cry.
