Beyonc\u00e9 recently came under fire for it – but she’s not the only one lighting up on stage…<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]
Words by Charley Ross<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/06\/Beyonce-scaled.jpeg” alt=”Beyonce” title_text=”Beyonc\u221a\u00a9 RENAISSANCE WORLD TOUR – New York” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] Beyonc\u00e9 has become the latest celeb to light up a cigarette on stage, causing us to ask: is smoking becoming a \u2018thing\u2019 again? During her Paris performance on Sunday, the Crazy In Love singer pulled out a cigarette mid-performance and pretended to puff on the prop during her show as part of a wider \u2018smoking hot\u2019 theme where she literally lights a piano on fire.<\/p>\n While we are here for the dramatics, Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s pretend-or-otherwise smoking on stage is part of a definite trend of singers smoking on stage, as well as the habit making its way back into the cultural conversation much more significantly. In a performance last year, Chappell Roan was rolled onto stage in a big red apple dressed as Lady Liberty, while smoking a large joint.<\/p>\n Fans were divided over Roan\u2019s choices, with some calling it \u2018disgusting\u2019 and discussing its potential impact on younger audiences. Others, however, defended Roan and her performance, saying that it\u2019s part of her use of drag and playful performance style. Lana Del Rey has long been famous for both smoking and vaping on stage, once stopping the show to look for her vape when she lost it. TikToker and pop singer Nessa Barrett has also been known to bring lit cigarettes on stage with her, at times just holding one and not inhaling.\u00a0<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_code _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″] Critics posted comments such as \u2018Yikes promoting cigarette smoking to your young impressionable fans? Do better,\u2019 and another wrote \u2018Smoking is bad \u2026 cmon Nessa you can do better,\u2019 while one added \u2018Why are you normalising smoking? At the end of the day it\u2019s bad for you\u2019.<\/p>\n Barrett responded to the backlash via her Instagram Story, writing, \u2018U guys are so soft lmao stfu bc I don\u2019t care\u2019. While these women should absolutely portray themselves however they like on stage, an issue critics have \u2013 for good reason \u2013 is the increased glamourisation of smoking by huge stars. Bringing a cigarette on stage feels like a statement, and part of a trend towards the A-list picking up smoking once more.<\/p>\n For instance, just like Carrie Bradshaw circa Sex and the City, Sarita Choudhury\u2019s character in the show\u2019s reboot And Just Like That, Seema, is rarely seen without a cigarette. Dakota Johnson\u2019s character in new film Materialists also smokes throughout, causing the New York Times to interview Jared Oviatt, who runs the Instagram @Cigfluencers, which has over 68,000 followers. He set up the account back in 2021 to document pictures of celebrities smoking. There really is an Insta account for everything.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Oviatt reported noticing an increase in pics of celebs smoking recently. \u2018In the early days I was really dipping into the archives,\u2019 he explains. \u2018There weren\u2019t a lot of new examples.\u2019 Now, he says, \u2018every week there\u2019s at least one or two people where I\u2019m like, \u201cOK, that\u2019s new.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n He was inspired to start the account after seeing a picture of Dua Lipa smoking. \u2018I was like, \u2018That is so crazy that this gorgeous woman that is a household name is so openly smoking cigs on her IG grid,\u201d\u2019 he said, arguing that the appeal of famous people smoking is down to aesthetics. \u2018That general star power makes it that much cooler,\u2019 Oviatt explains.<\/p>\n Big \u2018cigfluencer\u2019 names such as Dua, Anya Taylor-Joy and Charli XCX have been papped smoking off stage and off set, adding to the normalisation of celebs (and therefore, non celebs) smoking, not to mention cigarettes making a frequent, rather unexpected appearance on the runway at London Fashion Week this year.<\/p>\n Pop singers are certainly opting to bring cigarettes into their performances, with Charli XCX smoking in her music videos and Lorde writing lyrics about smoking for one of her newest tracks, What Was That. The lyrics read: \u2018I remember saying then, \u201cThis is the best cigarette of my life.\u201d Well, I want you just like that.\u2019<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″] Anyhow, not all fans are happy about this trend. On a Reddit thread discussing Barrett\u2019s smoking on stage, one critic wrote that her behaviour was \u2018f**king gross\u2019. \u2018I don\u2019t care if i get judged for saying this but active smokers are nasty as hell and encouraging your young audience to smoke for the aesthetic is absolutely atrocious behaviour,\u2019 they wrote. Another accused her of \u2018trying to be Lana it\u2019s not gonna happen\u2019.<\/p>\n In the age of bubblegum vapes, it\u2019s perhaps surprising that so many female singers are feeling the attraction to cigarettes on stage. Such lyrics \u2013 and the decision to smoke on stage \u2013 sum up the euphoria many may feel from smoking, but it does also glamourise a known harmful habit if role models such as Beyonc\u00e9 are either doing it or emulating doing it as part of their performances.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear whether these starlets are actively trying to make smoking \u2018cool\u2019 again, or that they are merely using an admittedly unhealthy activity to exercise their right to act how they want on stage. There\u2019s no smoke without fire, we guess.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Photo: <\/b>Getty<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is fast-becoming a new celebrity trend…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":11388,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11379"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11390,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11379\/revisions\/11390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
‘Every week there’s new pictures of celebrity’s smoking.’<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]