A Topless Woman Interrupted Avril Lavigne At The Juno Awards, And She Was Not Amused

This past weekend’s Academy Awards was one of the calmest and most positive-minded ceremonies in several years, coming one year after Will Smith infamously slapped presenter Chris Rock, which inspired a multitude of jokes throughout the night. On Monday night, Canada’s annual Juno Awards told the Oscards to hold its beer (presumably a Moosehead), as a protesting flasher took the stage without her top on as frequent Grammy nominee Avril Levigne was attempting to introduce a performance in a way that didn’t involve anyone’s bare boobs. Understandably, she wasn’t exactly impressed by the interruption. 

Lavigne, who made wholly different headlines going into the weekend by going public with a new relationship, was front and center early on in this year’s Junos telecast to introduce the Canadian-Punjabi singer AP Dhillon for his single “Summer High.” But before all that could happen, an unidentified woman wearing bright pink pants and not much else hopped onto the stage and strutted around for longer than expected before Lavigne accosted her and laughingly told her to “get the fuck off.” Check out the Twitter post below from someone recording in the audience, and be warned that it is NSFW!

While not immediately obvious to those further away, or to those who witnessed the woman’s blurred-out visage on live TV, the topless protester featured various protest messages written on her skin that are thought to be referencing the Ontario government’s controversial housing development plan. Two clearest messages on her back were:

Avril Lavigne held onto her professional edge for as long as possible, standing closer to the camera in a seeming attempt to block the flasher from view. Eventually though, the Taylor Swift-adored pop star couldn’t hold back, and dropped her first F-bomb. And for what it’s worth, Juno Awards host Simu Liu gave her props for handling the situation “like a champion.”

Though the topless woman didn’t return to the stage at any point, Avril Lavigne certainly did, winning the TikTok Juno Fan Choice award. Upon taking the stage to accept it, she called back to the protester with a bemused warning, saying:

Now nobody try anything this time, or the Canadian will come out of me, and I’ll fuck a bitch up.

While there’s certainly nothing wrong with being topless in general, whether it’s for personal empowerment or gracing magazine covers or countless other reasons. But there’s a proper time and place for such things, and public award shows airing on TV has to be somewhere near the very bottom of the list. 

Hopefully Avril Lavigne was able to enjoy the rest of her evening without any other half-naked people popping up around her. Or at least any unwanted ones, since she might very well be into such a look from her new beau Tyga, as she’s been sharing public smooches with the rapper in the immediate aftermath of her split with ex-fiancé and former co-star Mod Sun.