One is amongst the most prolific Eurovision songwriters of recent years. The other is a one-time national finalist who’s gained much notoriety on social media. And on Monday 20 July, the former — Laurell Barker — called out the latter — Aly Ryan — over a weeks’ old TikTok video.
Laurell Barker calls out Aly Ryan over S!sters TikTok
Aly Ryan’s TikTok
Aly Ryan was a fan favourite to win Germany Eurovision 2019 selection, with the uptempo club banger “Wear Your Love”. Yet despite her futuristic staging, she finished mid-table, far behind the winners S!sters. In the months since she’s grown a reputation for winding up fans on social media — from her campaigns to enter multiple national finals to her TikTok videos.
It was one of the latter that caught Laurell Barker’s attention — a 9 May TikTok which Ryan shared on Twitter with the caption “How to loose bad at #Eurovision vs. how to win @Eurovision 🤮 (German NF)”.
In the 25-seconds short, Ryan compares and contrasts footage of her performance with that of S!sters. Although she remains silent, her face is very expressive throughout. “A year later + still in therapy” reads the final caption.
How to loose bad at #Eurovision vs. how to win @Eurovision ? (German NF) pic.twitter.com/dWKfnMWOtg
— Aly Ryan ? (@alyryanmusic) May 9, 2020
Laurell Barker’s Instagram response
Now, well over two months later, the clip has come to the attention of Laurell Barker — one of the songwriters behind “Sister”.
Taking to her Instagram stories, Laurell shared her displeasure at Aly Ryan’s diss. In the process, she also takes aim at some of the staging decisions made by the German delegation in 2019.
“Here is why I wrote #sister for #eurovision: because I wanted to spread the idea that empowered women empower women. Just because it didn’t get portrayed the way it deserved by a group of men who wouldn’t listen and had no idea how to portray the message doesn’t mean that the publically throwing Carlotta, Laura, and my work under the bus is acceptable. That’s not what truly empowered women do. And if you think I’m talking about the other female competitors in the show who lost, I am. You hunnies can do better”.
She continues:
“Empowered women do not tear down other women @alyryanmusic”.
The scribe, responsible for hits like “She Got Me” and “All The Feels”, ends on a conciliatory note:
“To be clear, this is not throwing hate, this is an invitation to be accountable + apologize. @alyryanmusic may you never encounter the same disrespect/sabotage you showed my girls + my work”.
Aly Ryan has yet to publically respond.
What do you think of Laurell’s comments? Do you agree? Was Aly’s TikTok offensive? Let us know in the comments.
Empowered women do not blame men for the lack of success of their work.
team aly ryan
Um, no
We should focus more on reminding both of them that Lilly should have won because they seem to forget neither of them was great.
My pick was actually Makeda.
same
Wow, Laurel, hunny, we saw that you apparently work for Mello better than for other NFs but anyway Sister failed not because of the ‘men who wouldn’t listen’ but because of the song – it is simply lame and the message can’t fix that ????? Ally Ryan did behave childish and off-putting but you’d better not give your slipshod work more credit than it deserves.
“a year later and im still in therapy”
if losing a national final means needing a year’s worth of therapy, maybe the music industry isn’t for her ………….
I think this is the last time we hear about Aly Ryan because no way anyone gonna collaborate with her and bring her to Eurovision. She’s way too toxic.
Aly Ryan lost me with her incorrect use of “loose”.
Then again, I was never into her NF song but I thought it was a bop that people do like so I respect that. However, this show of character this past year or so really made me glad she didn’t win Unser Song.
A display of sportsmanship and bitterness don’t make the medicine go down.
It also feels unfair to kick Sisters when they’re down. They already got the bad finish and broke up, leave them be. It’d be like hating on D-mol or Michael Rice at this point.
*Correction: “Bad sportsmanship” I mean to say.
Barker’s response is poor and not very well thought out. A woman is not allowed to criticise a bad song because it was written by a woman? Anything that attempts to silence a woman’s opinion sounds like a bad move to me. This Sounds more like an attempt at getting a free pass from criticism for herself, really.
As for Aly, nothing she implied was wrong but don’t know how good it makes you look to be pointing this out one year later…
Unpopular opinion here: never liked “wear your love”, and her staging was utterly boring.
BTW, for those curious (and I’m sure you are), here’s the JESC status update:
So if you’re keeping track, that’s twelve countries completely on-board, two more (Italy and Portugal) that seem likely, four (Albania, Armenia, Malta, and North Macedonia) that have neither confirmed nor denied, and two (Australia and Wales) out, with no word about if any more countries can be expected to debut or return.
And now Malta’s in!
and north Macedonia’s out :/
now, after this – I need to hear “Ja Ja Ding Dong”……..and everything is fine again.
Guys, take it easy ….that is some sort of promotion what Aly Ryan and Laurell Barker are doing ….so people speak about them. Maybe Aly will release a new album soon (LOL).
I’m not sure if we can call it “criticism”. Aly’s comments seem to be immature. She’s behaving like children in kindergarten…
Instead of using the song ‘Sister’, she should’ve used the clip of Bar Refaeli saying “I’m sorry, zero points.”
Sorry, but both parts were absolutely childish and coarse… Aly for being such a bad loser and Laurell for that hysterically (and not smart) response, giving Aly the atention she was trying to get… both have to learn how to act like decent and empowered ladies, not as hysteric corny bitches
So, she called herself a loser?
Bc this is something that a loser would do.
As a German I do not understand why Aly is acting like a child lost in a game and is disrespectful. Of course her song suited and connected to Eurovision more than “Sister” but that does not mean she has the right to blame Laurell and her girls bc they won. I am happy that Aly did not and hopefully will not represent us in future years since her character seems to be selfish and not like a “Empowered woman”. I am glad that Laurell wrote a song with such a great message but sadly the song was not half… Read more »
Aly Ryan just wants reactions and attention, that is what she needs therapy for. Why else come off as sour loser a year after not winning?
A year and 5 months
even worse
She’s like the dollar tree version of Tana Mongeau, Nikita Dragun, Zoe Laverne, and Gabbie Hanna lol.
Seeing Aly Ryan shading towards S!sters is just one example of not showing sportsmanship. Like come on, Aly Ryan is better than this. And she’s trying to pull off a Nessa Barrett/Gabbie Hanna 2.0 I see.
Gabbie Hanna: sOoO wHaT iF iM tHe mOnStEeEeEeR
Aly Ryan: wEaR yOuR lOoOoOoOvEe
Twinning vibes
As a German I am happy that Aly did not and hopefully will not represent us in future years. The way she acts is just disrespectful and not like a “supporting woman” as Laurell said. I do not understand why she acts like this since she is not a big name in Germany anyway.
I am not a big fan of the decission to send “Sister” to Eurovision bc the song itself is flat and boring although the message is inspiring and beautiful.
I hope we can let it go
Wow, that TikTok was extremely immature. Btw, I’m in the minority that loved “Sister”. I, however, did not like Aly’s song at all.
What will Aly Ryan will do next on Tiktok, saying the n word, making of fun of ethnicities, or dance to a song about eating disorder?
Her song was better. She still needs that therapy though, not because of losing but because she is a joke.
Laurell is completely in the right
Let’s be honest, “Wear Your Love” was significantly better than “Sister”, even with Aly Ryan’s vocal problems. Still, that is highly inappropriate and childish for Ryan to still be complaining about it a year later. Most Eurovision artists or even national final artists at least respect their competitors and almost never say anything bad about them. Aly Ryan’s ego desperately needs to be deflated.
While I agree that Aly was way better than sisters, it is so petty and a bit pathetic to complain about her loss after a year and half. Seriously, she should get a life. Compare this with Sanna Nielsen, or Samantha Tina, who never threw shade to their fellow competitors (male or female).
Sanna and Samanta competed in their national finals for years and never once smack-talked any of the songs that won (several of which went on to not-great things at Eurovision itself).
Sanna even won the televote in the 2008 Melodifestivalen and still didn’t whine.
Sanna still smiled brighter than the sun when the results were revealed. Aly does not look well.
Sanna did, however, get quite goofy during the 2014 voting. I remember there was a video where all the contestants were asked for their thoughts on Conchita winning (surprise: Waylon was condescending!) and she’d clearly been enjoying the free drinks (“Yeah, Conchita Wurst…Conchita WURST!”).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWuSKDwtHLo
Actually, wait…that wasn’t the one where he was condescending. There was another interview where I remember him being way more condescending about Conchita. And both times he was still nicer than he was about Netta.
Also reminds me of how freaking nice and diplomatic most of those contestants were that year. Even Aram MP3, after all the smack-talk before the contest, did a full 180 and sounded pleased for her. (And Valentina, as ever, is a precious cinnamon roll we’re not worthy of).
That brings me to an interesting question: who would you guys call the friendliest contestants ever, at least based on interviews and whatnot? Friendliness is subjective, of course, and this doesn’t take into account bad days, bad interviews, etc., but why don’t we counter the bad vibes of this little grudge with some positivity? Just through communicating for my jury project, I can tell you from personal experience that a few grade-A people are: Gabriel Forss from Blond (Sweden 1997) Charlie McGettigan (Ireland 1994) Eldar Gasimov (Azerbaijan 2011) Joanna Dragneva (Bulgaria 2008) Liora (Israel 1995) Buy them a beer if… Read more »
I think that Senhit seems to be nice, she loves her dog and just feels like that aunt we all wish we had
she radiates good Italian aunt vibes
Im sorry, but Aly if you see this, please just chill. You lost, there is no way that that’s going to change. What you could do is just accept it and move on, show respect to Carlotta, Laura and the rest of the team.
It has been over a year now… just think about if you want to spend all your energy on bringing other women down.
I like chick fights. While Aly can’t seem to let go, I have yet to encounter an empowering song written by Ms Barker. But to each their own. Neither one of them would have come close to winning, regardless of their staging.
“Chick fights” feels a little condescending, nu?
Maybe for the PC police.
come on… no woman cares about it.
rly? chick fights? the smell of sexism is overpowering here
I suppose co*k fights would be okay?
nope. neither would be acceptable at all. sis your far-right is showing
Hilarious, the things you consider far-right, sis(*y).
If that was an attempt at calling me a “sissy” (which quite honestly is one of the weakest insults known to humankind), then please remember that it is spelt like this: sis(*sy), not sis(*y).
The * stands for the second s, genius.
Ok. I was wrong. However, there really isn’t any need to drag intelligence into this, especially since you are at an unfortunately clear disadvantage. 🙂
Honey, even the * was too much for you to figure out. The only thing that’s so unfortunately clear is your lack of humor and understanding of what far-right means. 😉 And in a chick fight between you and me, I’d win every single time.
Can you explain to me how being offensive and deluded is supposed to be either humorous or funny? And quite honestly, I wouldn’t consider fighting you at all because I would hate to debase myself by having that much contact with you.
And yet you feel the need to reply to almost all of my comments. So I suppose you’re a keyboard warrior, you probably don’t have much contact with anyone. I’m glad you at least get some kind of interaction by constantly replying. I could do without it, but nevertheless, you’re welcome. 😉 Sure you wanna keep debasing yourself? 😉
Look. We’re both being really rude to each other. I’m sorry about that on my part. I completely disagree with you but that’s fine. And btw I’m replying because that’s how you have a conversation. And if you are so against replying why are you doing the same thing. But that’s besides the point. I am done with this conversation and I genuinely hope you have a nice day.
I’m having a nice night, thank you. I hope you do, too. 🙂
everything that isn’t politically correct these days is considered far right, so don’t worry. 🙂
Well that’s just lovely coming from the person who excused blackface in Europe because it just “doesn’t mean the same thing as it does in America”.
yeah it doesn’t, at least for me. What has Slovenia got to do with Slave owners and making fun of black people with blackface? Just because we are white? nah I ain’t buying that. Sorry but I do remember the times when u weren’t cancelled for making jokes etc. nowadays u aren’t allowed to say or joke about anything… like grow up and don’t be offended by everything, I’m also bi and I’m not offended by everything.. that’s my opinion tho, have yours as you please. 😀
I will never understand how people like you simply assume that making incredibly harmful statements towards an entire race is “aww boohoo I cant say anything now oh what a shame” like NO, it’s simply that you can’t say stuff that is derogatory and absolutely cluelessly offensive. And I could not care less that you are bi so I don’t understand why you brought that up. Being LGBTQIA+ doesn’t excuse you from being racist. 🙂
I’m not racist for saying some jokes. People can also joke about my height, appearance,sexuality or anything and I won’t be insulted and call them biphobic, cause u know I do know a difference between a joke and an actual insult, why do people think an insult is the same as a joke.
Slovenia might have zero black people, but your planet and species do. Respect them.
Actually, Slovenia has more than Zero black people. In fact, they elected one of them, Peter Bossman, as mayor of Piran.
I was exaggerating for effect.
Ah, so like Kanye’s presidental run? 😛
Ah, so like Kanye’s presidential run? 😛
Thanks for alerting me to Peter Bossman. An admirable man. Elected ten years ago, he says it would be very difficult today. Apparently Slovenes are having an identity crisis. Sad. http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/peter-bossman-in-slowenian-osteuropas-erster-schwarzer-buergermeister-tritt-ab-a-1239261-amp.html
P.S. I won’t comment on Kanye. He needs medical treatment.
You’re welcome. I was actually in that town where he was mayor, it’s a very nice area.
well I think he would be elected today as well, he was a mayor until 2018 so not that far long ago, he didn’t run again later. Slovenes are as a whole not a racist nation, u will get stares especially if u aren’t in Ljubljana since there isn’t a lot of black people in SLO (in my school there are around 400 students and only one of them is half-black, others are white). I do think that migration changed some views, but that is present around Europe not only in Slovenia. But we never had a racist incident in… Read more »
It’s a pity for Slovenia that one of their own is married to the most famous racist in the world.
I am respecting them I was never in my life rude to a black person, just check my reply to Una to see my position on issues like these. I just don’t think colouring your face is offensive if it’s not meant to be mocking someone.
well I never want to be offensive, I mean I will always believe that the context matters and if you do something without the intention of hurting someone it should also be perceived that way. Not just talking about blackface but about other things as well. I don’t believe you should get cancelled for an act that wasn’t meant to offend someone. That is my opinion, and that is mostly the reason the world is going crazy nowadays. Thank u for the nice replies. These are the topics that should be discussed.
Well said! 🙂
and also not all black people are offended by blackface, as I’m not offended by someone pretending to be bi (in a movie for example) or by jokes made on bisexuality. Just because some people think it’s offensive that doesn’t mean that everybody of that group think it’s offensive. This is actually hurting minorities because nothing that’s not positive can be said on them, everything has to be positive and no jokes should be made on us/them that is causing the divide imo 🙂
I think it’s funny how she wrote Sisters, a feminist anthem – but also She Got Me, a song about a man sexualizing a woman for three minutes purely because she walked into the room. Maybe the woman who “goes low” is actually a brain surgeon or high court judge who wouldn’t give Luca the time of day.
You got me. The women in my life surely didn’t give that song the time of day.
Bingo. And here, we are surrounded by so many snowflakes, it’s like we’re in the freezer. 😉
Aly Ryan needs to take more care of her image. She will destroy all she has if she will not act more mature.
She’s right about Aly Ryan. Maybe Aly really is in therapy, so let’s hope it works!
I think she was a little self-denying to blame the “men who had no idea” for the bad result. The staging may not have been great, but it wasn’t terrible. The performers sold the message very well and put their heart and soul into it. The song was the problem.
I never thought it was that bad, but the staging both in the national final and at Eurovision was garbage and I think contributed to the overall unmemorable package.
Contributed, maybe – but sole blame? No.
I’m not sure how it’s relevant to Aly’s behaviour, though…it’s almost as if she agrees with her…
I LOVE that revealing twist. I was thinking the same thing. haha
Honestly? Good for you, Laurell! She doesn’t deserve nearly as much bile and throwing-under-the-bus as she gets from the fandom. The fact that Aly Ryan still has sour grapes about it a year later saddens me.
As much as I love Aly Ryan’s songs my GOD she is problematic