The controversy surrounding Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine has officially permeated every corner of the internet, including TikTok.
In a 39 second viral TikTok video, @songsbyalex, an aspiring musician, extracted some of Levine’s most flirtations, embarrassing, and cringe-worthy DMs from his online escapades with women who aren’t his wife, and plugged them into Maroon 5’s “Girls Like You.” The result is a hilarious rendition that not only holds its own against the original, but also roasts Levine in the process.
@songsbyalex, or simply Alex, is an aspiring musician who regularly posts snippets of his own music to TikTok. In the past, his singing voice has been compared to Levine’s, which makes his remix of “Girls Like You” all the more compelling.
Captioning the video “I’m going to get sued for this,” Alex opens the song with the now-iconic text message “that body of yours is absurd” which Levine reportedly sent Instagram model Sumner Stroh during their alleged affair. Levine has denied Stroh’s allegations, but after more women came forward sharing their experiences interacting with Levine online, the rock star’s flirtatious habits became public knowledge and the butt of the internet’s jokes, resulting in on ongoing public roast, and now a new song.
The video has attracted almost seven million views as of this writing, with almost a million likes and thousands of comments calling the remix sublime:
“You can’t tell me this isn’t a real maroon 5 song though,” said TikTok user @invsibiestring. “I felt like I should’ve paid to watch this video,” said @zachpincince. “This is what the INTERNET is for!!!” said @missinginaction40.
But ordinary TikTok users weren’t the only ones who found Alex’s remix to be perfection. Duolingo, the language-learning app, commented, “SCREAMING,” proving music really does transcend language. The Asian fusion restaurant P.F. Chang’s, who knows a thing or two about taste, wrote, “Song of the year” and “Someone get this man an album.”
One after another food companies lined up in the comments section to hurl praise at Alex. “Sometimes it’s fun to just stir the pot lol,” wrote Sonic Drive-In. “This would fly off the charts,” wrote Jimmy John’s the sandwich chain. “I love the internet,” said Blaze Pizza.
Even if the video does land in Levine’s lap and he somehow manages to take Alex to court, TikTok user @melinacdixon assured the aspiring musician that the internet would come to his aid. “If you get sued, we will raise funds for your lawyer,” they wrote. For the most part, however, Levine has remained largely quiet on social media, likely hoping things will die down, which it will. But music has a way of living on forever, and depending on how viral this remix of “Girls Like You” gets, it could be a long time coming before people forget how “absurd” that body of yours is.
