5 hours ago
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An Australian band has been slammed globally after their shocking comments about a popular Usher song.
Melbourne punk band Radio Free Alice were appearing on Triple J's Like A Version program, where music acts are invited into the station's studio and asked to play one of their own compositions as well as a song they love by someone else.
The group sparked the controversy when they revealed the reason they were covering the hit 2010 Usher song, DJs Got Us Fallin' In Love.
'We have always felt that good songs don't need good covers. Bad songs need good covers,' they began.
'This song is the ugliest duckling of bad songs! So, we thought it was a fun challenge to see if we could turn it into a good song, if that was physically possible.'
The band's blunt remarks about the hit dance song quickly enraged listeners, who took to social media to eviscerate them.
An Australian band has been slammed globally after their shocking comments about a popular Usher song during Triple J's Like A Version
'It's not too late to apologise for at best the clearly thoughtless comments,' one person wrote.
'Are they calling……. DJs got us falling in love again by THE USHER…… a bad song? Who tf are they WHAT???!!' a second added.
'Just watched the cover... They DO NOT have the talent to back these remarks,' a third person chimed in.
'The Usher song is a product of the time, but it was WILDLY successful and went multi-platinum in a dozen countries. Their cover is awful, they took an “ugly duckling” and turned it into a dead duck, another said, while one raged. 'The audacity to disrespect USHER and I don't even like Usher.'
'Their next song should be how to destroy your music career in one sentence,' one simply added, while several said they had 'never heard' of the band.
Triple J's Like A Version program is one of the station's most popular and long-running segments.
In January 2022, veteran children's entertainers The Wiggles made Triple J history by becoming the first band to top their coveted Hottest 100 poll, with their Like A Version cover of a Tame Impala song, Elephant.
In a surprising twist, the children's band revealed they had never even heard of the Hottest 100 before their huge win.
The group sparked the controversy when they revealed the reason they were covering the hit 2010 Usher song, DJs Got Us Fallin' In Love. 'We have always felt that good songs don't need good covers. Bad songs need good covers,' they said
The band's blunt remarks about the hit dance song quickly enraged listeners, who took to social media to eviscerate them.
Original members Anthony Field, Jeff Fatt and Murray Cook made the admission on Sunrise while speaking to hosts David 'Kochie' Koch and Natalie Barr about the poll.
'I didn't know about the Hottest 100, I didn't know about Like a Version. I didn't know about Tame Impala a year ago so this has been a great surprise,' Anthony said.
Kochie told them an artist or band is considered 'the coolest of cool' in the music industry if they win the Hottest 100.
He then asked Purple Wiggle Jeff if he'd 'ever expected to be this cool'.
'Who'd have thought I'd be this cool at the age of 68?' Jeff responded cheerfully.
Like Anthony, he also claimed he'd never heard of Triple J's Hottest 100 before topping the poll.
They covered the song in March 2021 for Triple J's Like a Version.
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