Guy Sebastian has returned fire at “keyboard warriors” everywhere, after a bunch of them showed their disapproval when the singer’s Like A Version performance reached #56 on triple j‘s Hottest 100 of 2016 last week.
The former Australian Idol winner’s collaboration with Paces on a cover of L D R U’s ‘Keeping Score’ reached an impressive #56 on this year’s annual poll, but some listeners weren’t too pleased with Sebastian’s Hottest 100 debut:
Listening to the replay of the #hottest100 – still trying to fathom how a #likeaversion song featuring guy sebastian beat radiohead!!!
— Keya Keys (@keya_and_doggo) January 28, 2017
It's not me getting old, right? Beyonce, Rihanna, and Guy Sebastian in the Triple J Hottest 100. The fuck?
— Bilgin Ozkan (@mversion) January 27, 2017
Now, speaking with News Corp Australia, Sebastian says that while the Hottest 100 placing was “unexpected”, the hate wasn’t.
“Some people are sitting their with their fingers primed, waiting to be angry about something, hate on something,” he says.
“There are serial complainers. I think people get addicted to negativity. I just don’t bother anymore. I’ve had random people on the street who’ve said ‘Oh dude, how sick is it you’re in the Hottest 100’ and people on planes or shopping centres over the past week who’ve been so lovely.
“I haven’t had one single person tell me to my face I shouldn’t have been on there, it’s just the keyboard warriors.”
Sebastian says haters used to bother him, but he now sees things as being more about people’s perceptions of music, not just the music itself.
“I’m very opinionated about what is deemed as credible. It’s hard to articulate without sounding bitter or that I’m trying to justify my position as a pop artist, which I don’t feel I need to. So I just don’t address it and just go with it,” he says.
“I’m trying to figure out where the line is. It’s really what people deem as ‘cool’ rather than ‘credible’ at the end of the day. There’s artists triple j would openly admit they would never play. So it definitely becomes less about music and more about perception, the cool factor.”
Triple j‘s Hottest 100 of 2016 also featured appearances from other typically ‘mainstream’ artists like Rihanna, Beyoncé and even Justin Bieber (via Halsey’s cover of ‘Love Yourself’). The eventual winner was Sydney producer Flume, with his song ‘Never Be Like You’.
In his interview with News Corp Australia, Sebastian also defends singer Shannon Noll, who was arrested in January after allegedly assaulting a bouncer at an Adelaide strip club.
“There’s two sides to the story,” Sebastian says. “I’ve known him for 14 years. I’ve hung out with him a bunch of times. I’ve never heard him ever say anything remotely like ‘Don’t you know who I am?’. It did make a hilarious meme though.
“He was in Adelaide, he’s in my home town. It’s like me going to (Noll’s hometown) Condoblin. There will be people to wind you up. My brother went to Shannon’s show that day. They felt sorry for Shannon, there were so many people trying to rile him up — the whole Idol rivalry, first and second thing. He’s only human. Most people would crack and I’ve seen him time and time again be very patient with people. He’s not perfect, none of us are.”
Sebastian is currently working on a new EP, while Noll is due in court over the Crazy Horse incident on 24th February.
Watch the performance which landed Sebastian his debut Hottest 100 spot, below.
Watch: Paces & Guy Sebastian – ‘Keeping Score’ (LDRU Cover) For Like A Version
