'Misery Business' is back on Paramore’s setlist for the first time in four years.
The banger was penned by frontwoman Hayley Williams and released in 2007 when she was just 17 years old.
But in more recent years, the smash hit was slammed for its ‘sexist’ lyrics and the band announced they were retiring the song.
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Watch Hayley explain why they were bringing the song back at a recent gig below:
After the group played the song at a 2018 gig, Williams said it would be the last time they performed it 'for a really long time'.
She said: "This is a choice that we’ve made because we feel that we should, we feel like it’s time to move away from it for a little while."
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Well, Williams' definition of a 'really long time' doesn't appear to be that long after all, since Paramore launched into the song during a performance last week.
Taking to the stage on Sunday (2 October) in California, Rolling Stone reports that Williams told the crowd: “Four years ago, we said we were gonna retire this song for a little while, and I guess technically we did.
“But what we did not know was that, just about five minutes after I got cancelled for saying the word ‘whore’ in a song, all of TikTok decided that it was OK.”
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The line from the song some fans considered sexist reads: "Once a whore, you're nothing more / I'm sorry, that'll never change."
Footage captured at the gig showed the crowd going wild, but some have taken issue with the band’s return to the song on social media.
One person wrote: “I like how that band Paramore said they wouldn't play 'Misery Business' anymore but waited until the last show of the tour to do that and then they took a couple of years off, Covid happened, they come back and now just play it again like nothing ever happened.”
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Another Twitter user shared a recent statement from Paramore that condemned an incident that occurred at a Utah show earlier this week.
Posted on 5 October, the band said a male fan had ‘physically and verbally assaulted multiple women, including an engaged couple’ at the show and emphasised: “[We] do not condone violence, homophobia, or bigotry of any kind. It is supremely unwelcome in our community and has no place at our shows."
Reposting the statement, the social media user wrote: “That's why you should stop performing 'Misery Business'.”
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A third person tweeted: “I’m happy that Paramore is back to playing 'Misery Business', and I was sad when they stopped, but they always had a valid reason. The misogyny.
"And maybe looking back you don’t remember, but ‘once you’re a whore you’re nothing more I’m sorry that’ll never change’ IS HARSH AND EVIL.”
UNILAD has approached Paramore for comment.
The song tells the story of a teenage love triangle in which one woman snags the boy.
Speaking to NME in 2017, Williams confessed she could see why people took issue with the word ‘whore’, saying: “The problem with the lyrics is not that I had an issue with someone I went to school with… It’s the way I tried to call her out using words that didn’t belong in the conversation.”
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Aisha Nozari