Unless you’ve been living under a rock this week, it’s likely that you’ve come across the news story that has rocked the music and reality TV world to it’s core. Over the weekend, New Zealand’s edition of The X-Factor began the live finals. Joe Irvine performed ‘Cry Me A River’ in a suit and with slicked hair. Surely nothing could come of that? You’d be wrong.
Natalia Kills, a judge on the show, laid into the contestant in the most utterly disproportionate way, lambasting him for ‘copying her husband’ – Willie Moon, who is also a judge on the show – and accusing him of having ‘no identity’, and perhaps most shocking of all, calling him ‘disgusting’ and saying he ‘made [her] sick’. To add insult to injury, her husband gleefully joined in the harangue, claiming that the contestant looked ‘like Norman Bates dressing up in his mother’s clothing’. It was shocking, it was brutal, but as always is with reality TV, compelling to watch.
In light of this, the next day a YouTube video of the pair had gone viral, with people demanding that the couple be removed from the show for what was considered bullying. Within hours, our wishes were not only answered, but came true. Natalie and Willie were both fired from the show with immediate effect, with the show’s producer releasing a statement describing the pairs comments as ‘unacceptable’ and ‘a destructive tirade’.
I absolutely agree with the decision. As a huge fan of Natalia Kills – I have been following her music for years and own both of her studio albums – I found her behaviour and her actions to be repulsive and nothing short of harassment. Bullying should not be tolerated by anyone, much less a popstar on a reality TV show who should be fairly judging their contestants based on their singing ability, and offering constructive and impartial criticism without resorting to personal and spiteful jibes that are dressed up as ‘honesty’.
This has undoubtedly killed her career. Type in ‘Natalia Kills’ into YouTube, and the first video is ‘Joe Irvine is bullied by Natalia Kills’. Go on to any of her videos and the comment section is rife with insults – ‘Looks like a pound shop Lady GaGa!’ – and personal tirades that parody her comments to Joe Irvine.
The shame of it is is that Natalia is genuinely an extremely talented musician and artist. Her first album ‘Perfectionist’ is a pop masterpiece, with exciting stabs of haunting electropop and a cluster of daring disco uptempos, whilst her follow-up ‘Trouble’ is a frighteningly honest portrayal of her life and upbringing, with ethereal backdrops, a bombastic delivery and devastatingly sombre balladry. And no one will ever pay attention to it now, all because of her shambolic appearance on a singing contest and a video that went viral.
Let this be a cautionary tale.
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