UPDATE: Most Music Stars Who Lost Checkmarks Are Verified Again
Music stars shared their reactions Thursday to losing the verification badges on their Twitter accounts.
The social media platform, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, delivered on a promise to remove the blue checkmarks (aren’t they technically white checkmarks? - ed.) from accounts that are not paying for them.
“Officially no longer an officially verified artist,” tweeted Charli XCX. “i love being unofficial and unverified. it’s very moi.”
Among the Canadian artists who lost their checkmarks are Justin Bieber, Drake, Shania Twain and Sarah McLachlan – but, as of Friday morning, Shawn Mendes, Michael Bublé, Avril Lavigne, Alanis Morissette, Neil Young, Nickelback, Jann Arden and Bryan Adams had theirs.
Céline Dion’s account has a gold badge.
Also losing their checkmarks were Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Adele, Sam Smith, Selena Gomez, Harry Styles, Katy Perry, Demi Lovato, Mariah Carey, Lil Nas X, Bruno Mars, Lionel Richie, and Megan Thee Stallion. Those who have a verified badge include Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Cardi B, Morgan Wallen and Miley Cyrus.
Britney Spears has a checkmark but Janet Jackson does not. Coldplay has one but U2 does not.
“Blue check or no check… I know my fans still checkin,” tweeted Ciara. The Game took the loss of his verification in stride: “Check gone but the checks still comin.”
Yungblud seemed to have a different reaction. “I ain’t verified anymore … kinda hard,” he tweeted. Nathan Followill of Kings of Leon shared: “And just like that my blue check mark was gone. Adios my friend.”
In a series of tweets, St. Vincent responded to the loss of her checkmark. “So you’re telling me I have to pay top dollar to be allowed into a new velvet rope circle of hell? I thought our brilliant collective musings, time, attention, and the depression/anxiety resulting from said attention WERE the payment. Lol,” she wrote.
“I kid. I’m not genuinely worried about the blue check mark. You’ll know it’s really me by the sporadic timing and general confusion with which I engage.”
FINNEAS joked that he “FINALLY got rid of the blue mark.” (His sister Billie Eilish lost hers, too.)
Twitter fave Dionne Warwick, who lost her checkmark, opined: “The way Twitter is going anyone could be me now. The verification system is an absolute mess.”
According to Mashable, fewer than five percent of Twitter’s previously verified accounts still have the blue checkmark.
Rapper Ice T, who still has a blue checkmark, summed up the buzz in a tweet. “The fact that we’re even discussing Blue Check marks is a Sad moment in society,” he wrote. “Smh lol.”