Meghan Trainor Pulls "Me Too" Video Saying "They Photoshopped the Crap Out of Me"
Meghan Trainor has enough control over her own career that she was able to release a brand new music video and then remove it from the internet within a few hours because she didn't like it. But it wasn't the quality of the video that warranted her response.
On Monday afternoon, the 22-year-old pulled the video for "Me Too," the second single from her new album Thank You, after noticing that her waist had been altered without her permission.
"Hey guys, I took down the 'Me Too' video because they Photoshopped the crap out of me," she announced on Snapchat.
I'm so sick of it and I'm over it, so I took it down until they fix it. My waist is not that teeny. I had a bomb waist that night, I don't know why they didn't like my waist, but I didn't approve that video and it went out for the world, so I'm embarrassed. I told them to fix it ASAP Rocky 'cause I will be going to Times Square to play it for my fans so I hope they fix it for me. And I am sorry about this. The video is still one of my favorite videos I've ever done. I'm very proud of it. I'm just pissed off that they broke my ribs.
The Grammy-winning singer, who also captioned one of the Snapchat videos "Cried all morning lol hate them," spoke about the incident Monday night on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live.
"I was so upset because I thought the fans were doing it online and then I was like, 'Oh my god, it's my video,' Trainor told host Andy Cohen. "So I called the gods of Vevo and they took it down. I approved a new version that should be coming out tomorrow morning."
Were the teaser photos that she posted on Instagram not, in fact, the final cut of the video?
A photo posted by Meghan Trainor (@meghan_trainor) on May 7, 2016 at 1:26pm PDT
Trainor has been outspoken about body confidence and loving her curves, but even so, removing a video due to unapproved digital editing is an unprecedented act of defiance. But is it really promoting body confidence or just causing a media firestorm?
Just last month Trainor's Seventeen cover was accused by fans of being digitally altered. In this situation, the star didn't publicly address the situation or post the cover photo to social media.
When other stars from Lena Dunham to Kerry Washington have expressed concern over allegations of being digitally altered, the most they've gotten is half-baked apologies. Never has an issue been pulled from shelves due to a star speaking out in disproval of the way they were presented.
While we'd like to believe Trainor did this to further promote her (sometimes problematic) message of body positivity, one has to wonder how a situation like this came to pass, and why a major record company like Epic would not handle an ordeal like this offline rather than allowing Trainor to make it a public fiasco.
We applaud Trainor for setting a powerful "take control of your own career" example for other young female artists. But Meghan (may we call you Meghan?), if you're the boss lady calling up Vevo, why didn't you get final approval on the original?
