American singer Oliver Tree‘s past bullshit has been rekindled for his recent disrespect towards SHINee’s Jonghyun.
In 2019, the American singer used a photo that caught the attention of K-Pop fans to promote her own concert tour, the Goodbye Farewell Tour. In the now-deleted photo, Oliver Tree uploaded a photoshop of his own hair titled “REST IN PEACE SWEET BOWL CUT” to his personal YouTube page to promote his tour at the time.
Upon closer inspection, however, it quickly became clear that the original photo that Oliver Tree had photoshopped for the tour promotion was from SHINee Jonghyun’s funeral. The singer replaced Jonghyun’s face with hers and created a disrespectful meme to promote her 2019 tour.
SHINee member Jonghyun passed away in December 2017 and is mourned by K-Pop fans around the world. Jonghyun is considered one of the greatest vocalists of the time, as his artistic identity and songwriting abilities continue to be praised posthumously.
Given the delicate situation with Jonghyun, it’s no surprise that K-Pop fans were furious when they learned that Oliver Tree was using the funeral photo insensitively to promote his music.
Even though the photo is from 2 years ago, Oliver Tree hadn’t personally apologized for the situation – so SHINee fans started to resurface the situation and demand an apology from the singer.
The hashtag #apology_Olivertree started trending on Twitter as both Korean and international SHINee fans came together to raise awareness for the controversy.
알티해주세요제발#apology_Olivertree#올리버트리_사과해 pic.twitter.com/ICExencjuH
— 이응 (@dl_dmd_) October 10, 2021
Please retweet this.
— @dl_dmd_/Twitter
i dont understand how someone could be so inconsiderate and use someone’s trauma for attention. that was just inhuman and disgusting. we need a proper apology.
APOLOGIZE OLIVER TREE#apology_Olivertree #올리버트리_사과해
— math ❅ (@shineesteeth) October 10, 2021
This is such a disgusting thing. This man should immediately apologize for his disrespect! #apology_Olivertree#올리버트리_사과해 pic.twitter.com/6ik9kPbCmN
— ella | sticker (@ellalantis) October 10, 2021
You should properly apologize to everyone.#apology_Olivertree
Jonghyun is a precious person to us.#올리버트리_사과해
You should reconsider and learn your manners.
Don’t make someone else’s death a meme.— 거래계-플라 (@jung_go_Fla) October 10, 2021
After the initial backlash in 2019, the team responsible for managing Oliver Tree and its operations stepped forward to apologize for the controversy. However, the “sincerity” of the apology, not just the “on behalf” of the singer, became the center of more criticism and further fueled the Shawols’ (SHINee fans) anger.
With the topic making the headlines recently and gaining attention once again, Oliver Tree finally took the situation personally with an official apology on his Instagram story. The singer shared that the meme photo was not created with “malicious” intent and was “a very stupid mistake“. He also cited his team’s lack of research on the subject and a personal story about his cousin’s death as the reason behind the funeral meme photo.
However, Oliver Tree’s personal apology may be a little late as netizens have been negatively reviewing his past controversies and sharing their honest opinions about the singer’s “mistake“.
- “Who the f*ck is this guy.”
- “He is so inconsiderate.”
- “Is he serious?”
- “What a f*cking a*shole.”
- “I think they could file a lawsuit for slandering a deceased person.”
- “His song ‘Life Goes On’ keeps popping up on TikTok. I wonder if there’s a way for me to block his song.”
- “? What the f*ck did I just read.”
