Jennifer Zamparelli has revealed that she’s being targeted by fans of K-pop group BTS on Twitter.
Earlier this week, the RTÉ 2fm host and entertainment reporter Lottie Ryan discussed reports that BTS are taking an “extended” break from performing.
Unfortunately their conversation sparked serious backlash, and BTS fans took to social media to slam them for allegedly “slagging” the band.
After noticing the insane reaction from fans on Twitter, the radio presenter branded the fandom as “mental”, and riled them up even more by cutting off one of their song’s.
Their fans, who are notoriously passionate, took to social media once again to demand an apology from Jen, and now she’s finally responded.
During her radio show this morning, Jen said: “I am in so much trouble at the moment. It hasn’t been pretty, I’ve been getting a lot of abuse on Twitter.”
First of all, Jen pointed out that Lottie was the one who alluded to the band breaking up, but she was the one who was getting all the flack online.
She said: “I got bombarded by what they call themselves as the BTS Army, the boy band’s fans basically, they weren’t happy with me, I was ‘spreading rumours’, ok fair enough it was on my show.”
“So I was a bit hurt by all this, because well first of all they’re not getting their facts right, and second of all, like, why are they getting so angry? We were just chatting. Then on Tuesday I kind of made it a little bit worse…”
Jen explained that she cut off one of BTS’ songs, and joked: “Ok so I cut it off, I cut it a little short, but I played a good ten seconds of it!”
She continued: “First of all, I will apologise for cutting off your song, you were probably bopping around your kitchen or where ever you are listening to that, if you’re a K-pop fan.”
“And I cut it short because I was angry with you because I got bombarded by so many messages on Twitter.”
“For those of you who do not know who BTS are, they’re an all-male seven piece south Korean boy band who mix K-pop with hip hop and R&B, and they were formed in 2013. BTS stands for Beyond The Scene, and Bulletproof Boy Scouts – they’re huge, they’re huge, they’re huge… we get it! They’re great, whatever.”
“So that’s them, but their Army, as they call them, who claim to ‘own’ Twitter, are not happy with me or this show and they have messaged me numerous times and kept messaging me and tweeting me and @ing me,” she said.
we just wanted to protect our boys who were being talked about badly on radio, giving both them and us as a fandom a bad name. we apologise once again if you felt like you were being harassed, but what jennifer said was wrong, and it hurt thousands of people all across ireland.
— aoifs| ig: taeslittleleprachaun (@TLeprachaun) August 13, 2019
The presenter then read out some of the tweets that were sent to her, and one of them read: “I will not throw her under the bus, I will pick up the bus and drop it on her several times, then I will get in the bus and drive over her and then back up and drive over her again.”
Jen said: “So, then it was getting kind of violent and I was like, woah, woah, woah, can everybody chill? Chill out.”
She joked: “Initially, I was scared for my life. I thought there would be people with pitchforks outside RTÉ and bottles of acid, and I thought this is not good. I’m gonna go missing. I’m gonna be dead. You know, I’ve only started this radio show and already it’s coming to an end. I was very upset about it. ”
“And I thought what makes someone take to Twitter and write stuff like this, it is crazy behaviour. It is… or is it?”
Jen then admitted that she can relate to BTS’ fans, as she felt the same about 90s boy band East 17.
“Initially I was scared for my life, I’m gonna be completely honest with you, but then I soon realised and remembered my own crazy behaviour,” she said.
“I remember how I felt with that band, and there was no Twitter back then, but I wanted Daniella Westbrook dead, ok, I’m gonna be honest with you – I did. She was married to Brian Harvey, and when I found this out when I was 14 I was devastated.”
“I lost my Nike Air Max at one of their concerts, didn’t care, I was obsessed. And I dread to think of the stuff I would have written to Daniella if there was Twitter back then, because it’s frightening.”
“So BTS fans, I understand. I do, I understand. But really, there is no excuse for telling someone you want to run over them because they cut off a song. I mean, that’s not right,” she added.
Jennifer then warned fans that social media is “dangerous” because “when you take to Twitter in that rage, you’re gonna regret writing something” because “you can’t take it back.”
The conversation opened up a wider discussion about fandoms, and Jennifer asked her listeners: “Did you ever have an idol that made you a little bit bonkers? Or were you one of those people that cried when Take That broke up? Did Justin Bieber marrying Hailey Baldwin have you bawling into your pillow?”
With that in mind, Jen asked listeners to call or text in if they are or used to be an “obsessed” fan.
