A major debate reignites after Columbian rapper halts his concert and scolds mother for bringing baby to a concert

Sky News AU

a day ago

A Columbian rapper has reignited debate about where babies belong after a TikTok video went viral over the weekend.
Maluma, a popular rapper in South America, was performing in Mexico when he spotted a baby in the crowd.
He stopped the show and called out the mother for taking her child to his concert without making the baby wear eye protection.
After finding out the baby was one year old, he then used his own experience as a father to state that a concert was not the appropriate place to bring a baby.
'Next time, you must protect his ears or something. This is your responsibility,' the rapper said.
'You're waving him around like he's a toy. He doesn't want to be here, really. With love and respect, I'm a father and [I'd never do that]. Next time, be a bit more aware.'
Many of the commenters agreed with the rapper in a post shared on Reddit.
'I understand life shouldn't stop when [you] have kids. And it is quite challenging to find someone reliable to look after [your] kid for a couple of hours. But it is never impossible. Put some effort and planning if [you're] going to a concert. Poor kid [was probably] stressed a lot, even Maluma noticed it,' one person said.
'Good for him for saying something! This reminds me of when people bring their clearly terrified dogs to big music festivals. Their ears are so sensitive, imagine how overwhelming a loud concert must be,' said another.
'It's nice to finally see someone say something. Because it's so concerning that parents do this stuff,' a third agreed.
Others said that the woman should be banned in future to prevent a similar occurrence from happening again.
'Honestly, venues and festivals need to sell ear protection for kids at the door and force people to buy it if they show up with kids with no protection. Or ban kids. I've seen it too many times and it means permanent ear damage,' said another.
The issue of bringing children to a concert or a mass gathering has also been debated in Australia, after comedian Arj Barker stopped a gig at the Melbourne comedy festival in 2024 after a crying baby consistently disrupted the gig.
'The show is strictly age 15 plus as clearly stated on the ticket site. She had an infant with her. The baby was disrupting my performance,' Barker said at the time.
'On behalf of the other 700 people who paid to see the gig, I politely told her the baby couldn't stay. She thought I was kidding, which made the exchange a bit awkward.
'I felt bad about the whole situation and stated this on the night more than once. I offered her a refund. Theatre staff should not have seated a baby in my audience in the first place,' he said.