McFly have found themselves at the centre of a pop culture clash after Paloma Faith took a swipe at the band in a recent TikTok video.
The singer-songwriter recently revisited the albums that blocked her from reaching No1 on the UK charts over the years. Among them was McFly’s 2020 release Young Dumb Thrills, which landed at No.2 while her own track Infinite Things peaked at No.4.
In the video, Paloma didn’t hold back, saying: “No2 was Young Dumb Thrills by McFly. Ugh. C’mon, it’s a teen band. Actually it’s a teen band that’s still followed by fortysomething fans that have grown up with them.”
The comment sparked immediate backlash from McFly’s fiercely loyal fanbase, many of whom took to the comments to defend the band’s legacy and longevity.
Drummer Harry Judd chimed in on X: “Paloma throwing us shade on TikTok… be better, not bitter.”
His response was met with applause from fans who praised the band’s classy clapback and called out Paloma’s “unnecessary” dig.
McFly are no strangers to rivalries, thanks to their longstanding, tongue-in-cheek competition with Busted.
The Busted Vs. McFly tour is just around the corner, kicking off on September 16 in Birmingham at the BP Pulse Live Arena.
It’s being billed as the ultimate battle of the bands, with both groups going head-to-head across 33 shows in the UK and Ireland.
McFly’s bassist Dougie Poynter previously quipped that the Busted Vs. McFly tour will be “very WWE”.
He said and his bandmates – also including Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones – will get extremely competitive with Busted’s Charlie Simpson, Matt Willis and James Bourne and will be pouncing around like wrestlers.
Speaking to Guitar.com earlier this year, he said of the preparations: “Last week we started talking with our production people about how we actually want the show to flow and what kind of stupid stuff we can get away with.
“I think the nature of both of our bands, we can get away with doing some theatrical things every now and again. I mean we all play instruments, so there’s only tiny moments, or like, ‘How can one member get from one side of the arena to the other? Is there some sort of magic trick we can do?’ It’s very WWE, so we want to incorporate that as much as possible in the two teams.”
McFly and Busted previously became McBusted when Tom, Danny, Harry and Dougie joined Matt and James to form a supergroup.
Busted frontman Charlie previously joked McFly would be like a “support” act to Busted on the joint tour, just as they were during the Year 3000 hitmakers’ 2004 gigs.
He quipped to The Sun: “We said, ‘We don’t want to go out again, but we will if we have to take you on. You can support us one more time, yes. Just like you did in 2004.'”
But McFly’s Harry joked: “To be honest, these guys have obviously had their 20th anniversary and rinsed that and I think they’re a bit short on ideas, so they needed us and we felt charitable.”