Spotify Wrapped has dropped and people are mad because they’re suddenly being reminded of one particular artist. But it’s not because of the quality of his music, it’s because of his behavior.
The artist in question is country music musician Zach Bryan. You might have heard his hit tracks “Something in the Orange” or “I Remember Everything.” Well, upon seeing his name on Spotify Unwrapped, fans also remembered everything – remembered his allegedly abusive relationship with podcast star Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia, that is.
The famous couple met in 2023 and seemed to be doing fine until the final months of 2024 rolled around. On October 22, Bryan announced on Instagram Stories that he and LaPaglia had broken up, saying, “I have had an incredibly hard year personally and struggled through some pretty severe things. I thought it would be beneficial for both of us to go our different ways. I am not perfect and never will be.” Later, that turned out to be a bit of an understatement.
LaPaglia responded to the Instagram Story by saying she was “blindsided.” She then released a YouTube video of her crying in her bathroom, saying, “I had no idea that post was going up. He didn’t text me, he didn’t call me. I just woke up to a bunch of texts being like, ‘Are you okay?'” She then said, emotionally, “How can you give every ounce of yourself to someone and then be discarded of in a few days? It’s really, really heartbreaking.”
LaPaglia’s BFFs podcast cohosts Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards rallied around her, though. Portnoy linked to the Taylor Swift song “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” and dedicated it to LaPaglia, the implications being obvious. But then the duo decided Bryan deserved worse, and on November 6, they released a full-on diss track that pulled no punches. It was titled “Smallest Man,” and it mocked Bryan relentlessly, slamming everything from his first marriage to his 2023 arrest for obstruction of a law enforcement officer. “You’re a douchebag, you just made a new rival / Pretty soon you going to need a revival,” went the lyrics, before implying that Bryan had a STD with the words, “This is for the women that you’ve cheated and neglected/Music is infectious/But your penis is infected.”
The following day, LaPaglia shed some new light on the situation. On the BFFs podcast, she opened up and alleged Bryan had emotionally abused her. “The last year of my life has been the hardest year of my life,” she said to Portnoy and Richards. “Dealing with the abuse from this dude – I’m still scared right now.”
She went on, “He made me believe everything was my fault. He isolated me from my whole entire life. He wouldn’t let me be who I wanted to be. He made me hate everything that I loved about myself.” And that wasn’t all – LaPaglia also claimed that he’d tried to get her to sign an NDA, preventing her from talking publicly about the relationship. Though $12 million was on the table, she refused.
All in all, the situation is a mess, and people simply don’t want to hear Bryan’s music anymore, knowing that he may have emotionally abused LaPaglia. But because Spotify Unwrapped counts the streams for the whole year, and a lot of people were listening to Bryan before the scandal hit, here he is again, and people are annoyed.
Zach Bryan may not have been officially “canceled” yet, but you can bet fewer people will be listening to him in 2025.
Published: Dec 5, 2024 08:16 am