After facing industry plant allegations at the VMAs, rising star Sombr has been hit with a new wave of criticism, this time aimed at his body.
Sombr, real name Shane Michael Boose, shot to fame after dropping his debut album, I Barely Know Her, this summer, which produced three top 10 hits in the UK.
The Undressed singer, 20, revealed how one woman’s video, complaining about his recent concert, unleashed a ‘massive body shaming hate train’ against him.
She had attended his Washington gig on October 3 and posted a nearly nine-minute-long TikTok about the ‘cringe’ experience, which quickly snowballed.
In her rant, along with saying she ‘hated’ his performance, the content creator branded Sombr ‘slender man’ and made fun of his dancing.
‘I’m going to explain to you why, if you’re over the age of 16, you should not spend your money on a Sombr concert,’ the 25-year-old began her now viral video.
Comparing the experience to ‘a middle school dance’, she criticised the fans for being so young and taking pictures together before blasting the opener for ‘sucking’.
After over three and half minutes, she described Sombr’s stage entrance and complained that he made ‘niche’ references and meme jokes to the crowd.
Sombr’s ‘Dating Show’ segment was a particular sticking point for the content creator, who deemed it ‘inappropriate’ and ‘egotistical’.
‘It just doesn’t seem like he knows how to entertain,’ she said. ‘He’s maybe too young. Maybe he has to grow into it. I don’t know. Dancing was terrible, singing was terrible.’
She then hit out at the ‘tweens’ in the crowd who were saying, ‘This is my generation’s David Bowie’, expressing her confusion at the hype around him.
‘I’m so sorry, slender man? We’re picking him, we’re picking the weird dancing dude?’ she said and compared him to Napoleon Dynamite.
Since posting the TikTok, it has amassed over 5,000,000 views, with the creator posting several follow-up videos, including one escalating a feud with the opening act.
Inevitably, the video came to Sombr’s attention, who posted a short response saying he ‘respected’ her opinions but pointed out her own ‘skill issue’.
‘I thought I was chronically online,’ Sombr said. ‘But it’s just come to my attention that there’s a TikTok drama going around because a 25-year-old attended my concert and was basically complaining that there were too many tweens there, I was making too many brain rot jokes, and she just thought it was a cringe concert.’
He continued: ‘Also she was bodyshaming me and it’s kind of started a massive body shaming hate train directed towards me on a lot of videos of me on the internet right now.’
Videos dissecting the viral complaint had popped up across the app, erupting into discussions about if the review was fair or not.
Sombr shared: ‘I totally respect people having opinions, but I am a 20-year-old artist, freshly 20. And if you’re 25 years old and you’re going to come to my concert and not expect people younger than you to be there, when I the artist am five years younger than you, it’s just a skill issue.’
He added that he is rarely ‘serious’ and his humour is just part of his personality, but clarified he spent ‘five minutes’ joking and the rest was singing.
‘Live a little, enjoy life,’ he concluded. ‘Every age, sex, sexuality, gender, race: Everyone is welcome in my concert, and I mean everyone. You guys need to find problematic people to hate on, because I am just existing.’
Further thinkpieces on whether this was the correct response continued to exacerbate the discussion online but Sombr returned to his usual posting.
The content creator posted another five-minute response video with the caption: ‘At least PR isn’t my skill issue’, however, most people seem to be letting the issue die down now.
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