Melanie Fontana

I'm not one to respond or get involved in drama - especially Twitter drama - and I usually remain a bystander whenever this happens. There are many sides to the current story circulating Twitter, and I'd like to put in my two cents on the matter.

For those that don't know, Universal posted a congratulatory insta post, praising Melanie for her work on V's Sweet Night track that recently broke records on iTunes, surpassing that of Adele's that was held for the past 5 years. As a fan, I was extremely proud of this achievement. However, in Melanie's response to the post, she didn't bother to mention any of the other people who worked on the song with her.

I think it's a little bit of a far-reach to outright say this was her taking credit for the entire song. She never explicitly said this in the reply to the congratulations. What makes me pissed off about this situation is how immaturely her and her husband handled the backlash following the post and comment.

The issue this raised was the fact that Westerners were getting credited for the work of a non-Westerner (in this case, BTS). Yes, as fans, we understand that Melanie and her husband did help out on the song. However, it's one thing to say it's *our* song that they worked together with V, as well as the other songwriters and producers that participated, namely Adora and Hiss noise versus saying it's *my* song.

If you did 100% of the production, writing, performance, and everything else that comes along with a song, then by all means, go ahead and claim it as yours. However, if others contributed to the making of the song, it's not yours. It belongs to a group of people, and you'd do well to acknowledge that fact.

Further, you have to realize that BTS' fanbase has a wide range of people, including people who are extremely young to those that are considered elderly. The fact that Melanie and her husband decided to respond to the harassment they were receiving through instagram comments, insta stories, and Twitter baffles me. It's like they wanted to fan the flames ARMYs were already burning with. The mature reaction would've been to not address it through such means. Even better would be a simple apology that addressed the poor choice of wording that she's done in the past and move on.

But no, her and her husband - both well into their adulthood - decided to hit back. First, with her husband replying to a comment saying that him and his wife wrote every single word to Sweet Night. Even if that was the case for the original version, it's clear that the lyrics were changed throughout the writing process by Hiss noise, Adora, and Taehyung himself. Please don't blatantly lie when the song's credits speak for themselves, and the version that is currently under discussion is the final released version, aka not the song they allegedly wrote every single word for.

Another triggering post was Melanie's insta stories. Fine, play victim and comment on how hurt you are by all the messages you are receiving - you can easily delete them. It's not hard to do so. If you're reading them, that's your own fault. The fact that she said "you're being protective of a person who doesn't know you, a person who may love you but a person that really doesn't know you and doesn't need your protection" is another thing I'd like to address.

Regardless of whether BTS personally know me as a person or not, I am still their fan and they are still artists that I greatly admire. BTS have always protected their fans, whether it's through Namjoon changing the wording of the question when translating to his bandmates because the interviewer implied ARMY are 'insane' or just simply giving us healing songs to deal with our harder days.

This is not a one-way relationship, BTS x ARMY is a two-way street. We give and we take. If Melanie and her husband don't understand that, then that's simply something she shouldn't comment on. BTS members have always implied ARMY is standing with them, and they with us, so it is extremely offensive to me as a fan for Melanie to imply that our connection is so meaningless.

ARMY are also protective for a reason. BTS were not privileged when rising to the status they are at now - they had to work extremely hard and suffer through constant discrimination both in their own country as well as abroad. If you think ARMY didn't lend a helping hand in them breaking all kinds of records and becoming the sensation they are now, you're lying to yourself. BTS themselves recognize the role their fans have played in their success, and that's not something that should be so easily dismissed.

Lastly, don't you dare try to use the boys against us. How fucking low do you have to go to threaten to "tattle-tale"? How old is your mentality? And what makes you think that ARMY don't have just as much to tell BTS as you supposedly have to tell them? BTS are in constant communication with ARMY, especially through weverse. They're not so stupid as to simply take your word for it and suddenly go against their own fanbase. Please don't be so childish.

Stop fighting with ARMY and just take ownership of your mistakes. It's not that hard and it certainly would've prevented this entire situation from escalating so high, so quickly. But then again, what don't people do for clout these days?