Rising pop star Sombr has broken his silence on the TikTok drama engulfing his tour — and his response is going as viral as the criticism. After a 25-year-old concertgoer’s scathing nine-minute review of his October 13 show at the Anthem in Washington, D.C., racked up more than 700,000 views, the 20-year-old singer fired back on October 18 with humor, self-mockery, and a phrase the internet will not forget: “skill issue.”
The original video, posted by creator @meganator__, branded the concert “cringe,” called the dancing and singing terrible, and took aim at a segment dubbed the “Sombr Dating Show,” in which the artist invites fans onstage to call their exes. She compared his lanky stage presence to Napoleon Dynamite and a “slender man,” and said anyone over 16 should not spend money on his show. The clip also ignited a wave of body-shaming comments across his videos.
“I Just Found Out”
“I thought I was the one who was ‘chronically online,’ but apparently not,” Sombr — real name Shane Boose — said with a laugh in his TikTok response. “I just found out there’s a TikTok drama going on around me because a 25-year-old went to my concert and she’s complaining that there were a lot of tweens and a lot of ‘brain rot humor.'”
He stressed that he respects all opinions, but noted his audience knows his style: “I’ve never said anything serious in my life. On my show, I joke for five minutes — the rest is music.” Then came the line that launched a thousand stitches: “I’m 20 years old, just 20. If you’re 25 and you come to a concert by an artist five years younger and it seems ‘childish’ to you, then the problem probably isn’t my age — it’s a skill issue.”
Fans Rally Behind Him
Sombr closed with a clear message: “Live a little. Enjoy life. Every age, gender, sexuality, and race is welcome on my live shows. Everyone. There is no room for hate. You need to find other people to hate, because I just… exist.” Fans flooded social media with support, praising his composure. “He’s the only one who can turn hate into art,” one wrote, while another marveled: “Having such maturity at 20 is rare.”
Like other internet firestorms this month, the feud shows no sign of cooling — but Sombr, with nearly 54 million monthly listeners and a Grammy nomination behind him, seems entirely unbothered.
