"Oliver Anthony has addressed the overwhelming response to his viral folk song in a new video statement. In the clip, he notably pushes back against conservative politicians who have championed him, and calls out the use of the song at this week's Republication presidential debate.

"I wrote that song about those people," he said, referring to the candidates featured on the debate.

He also states, more broadly, that "It's aggravating seeing people on conservative news trying to identify with me like I'm one of them.""

https://youtu.be/cv9uMXiY29s?si=1s6RHCyFOBRq7NpA



This post was edited by dannyscow2 on Aug 25 2023 09:47pm

People get famous overnight for many different things.

It's called going viral is this is your first time on the internet?

People come out of nowhere, literally nowhere, and jump to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 like this?

He's literally the first artist to ever be #1 with no prior history on the chart (and no prior recording history in his case). What he has done is unheard of. 45 million views in just 10 days on YouTube as well. There's going viral, and then there's this...

In a YouTube video shared on Friday, the singer addressed his song having been played at this week’s 2024 Republican presidential primary debate, saying that he found it “funny” because the song “is written about the people on that stage.”

“The one thing that has bothered me is seeing people wrap politics up into this,” Anthony said. “It’s aggravating seeing people on conservative news try to identify with me, like I’m one of them. It’s aggravating seeing certain musicians and politicians act like we’re buddies and act like we’re fighting the same struggle here, like that we’re trying to present the same message.”

The song, in which Anthony sings about working hard and paying taxes just to “waste (his) life away,” has been embraced by conservatives.

Anthony, though, was critical in the video toward both sides of the political spectrum and said his ballad “has nothing to do” with Democratic President Joe Biden.

“It’s hard to get a message out about your political ideology or your belief about the world in three minutes and some change,” he said,”but I do hate to see that song being weaponized.”

“I see the right trying to characterize me as one of their own, and I see the left trying to discredit me, I guess in retaliation. That sh*t’s gotta stop,” he continued.

I mean sure it's very viral and you can see why. He just said what everyone was feeling and the people said omg yes I resonate with that message. But let's not pretend like he is some kind of deity. Just a guy who won a big lottery ticket in the music charts. He himself says he isn't special, good for him hope he makes the most of it and wish him all the best. But let's focus on the message instead of idolising.

Yeah, the guy wrote that thing quickly, problem is: it contains ceratin keywords and pseudo sentences arranging republicans populist narrative without any further explanations, developpment.
This is exactly what they need and they abused it. Clearly the author is very sad about t. Do you understand what i means ?

I have no idea what you're even arguing at this point

You are fanboying him about how he is super viral instead of focusing on the political sentiment he was conveying.
If you want to talk about his 5min fame take it to GC.

never even heard of the guy or his song, prior to the GoP Debate Circus.

I still don't know who he is. And I still don't care.

I don't sympathize with complaints about how bad things are in America, whether they come from the right or the left. Historically, and even comparing with how things used to be in recent American history, things are pretty good. America is a land of opportunity. The disadvantaged have numerous opportunities to get ahead, including those provided by the government(like subsidized student loans and grants). Stop complaining and get after it.

Nice puppers he has though.