Troye Sivan Responds to Body Diversity Critiques of His ‘Rush’ Music Video: ‘It Wasn’t a Thought We Had’

After receiving some online criticism for his latest music video, Australian pop star Troye Sivan is responding in kind.

In a new interview with Billboard on Tuesday (July 18), Sivan talked about his new single “Rush” and its subsequent music video, which garnered some significant criticism online for not showcasing a diverse array of body types. Speaking about the backlash, Sivan said that he and his creative director Gordon von Steiner simply didn’t think about the issue when making the video.

“I definitely hear the critique,” Sivan said in the interview. “To be honest, it just wasn’t a thought we had — we obviously weren’t saying, ‘We want to have one specific type of person in the video.’ We just made the video, and there wasn’t a ton of thought put behind that.”

Sivan also clapped back at critics who used the opportunity to mock the singer for his appearance. “There was this article … and they were talking about [the lack of body diversity], and in the same sentence, this person said ‘Eat something, you stupid twinks,’” he said. “That really bummed me out to read that — because I’ve had my own insecurities with my body image. I think that everyone’s body is as beautiful as it is, including my own, and it just sucks to see people talking about other people’s bodies.”

The singer wasn’t the only one who was disappointed by the discourse surrounding the “Rush” video — in a tweet that seemed to reference the backlash on Friday (July 14), pop singer Charli XCX appeared to defend her past collaborator from critics. “I feel like we live in a world where audiences feel like expression or art isn’t worth their time unless it appeases every single unspoken requirement,” she wrote. “IT IS SO BORING. if something breaks common aesthetics it’s “weird” or “try hard” if something conforms it’s “offensive” and “not diverse enough”. What a boring discourse.”

Check out Sivan’s full interview here.