A chart-topping Australian artist has come under fire for a new music video that features a nude strip search scene in a women’s prison and depicts the death penalty.
Peach PRC, a pop singer who grew up in Adelaide, began teasing clips of the music video for her new single Time of My Life last week.
Fans of the pop princess have lashed out at the singer in the comments of her promotional posts on both TikTok and Instagram.
The music video begins with Peach dressed in her trademark pink fairy look and sees her posing for a prison mug shot.
‘Why are we glorifying prison?’ one fan asked in the comments section of Peach’s Instagram post of the clip.
‘Cosplaying women’s prisons is so gross!’ exclaimed another.
In one of the music video’s controversial scenes, two prison officers played by PoC drag queens depict a strip search.
The pair remove Peach’s clothes and stripper heels, leaving her fully nude except for her blurred out private parts, which the singer jokingly covers with her hands.
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Aussie pop singer Peach PRC is courting controversy for her new music video that takes place in a women’s prison and features a strip search and the use of an electric chair
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Fans of the social media personality took to the comments section on the video to discuss the controversial scenes, with many calling the singer ‘out of touch’
In the video, she rolls her eyes playfully at the guards as she hands over her belongings to the prison guards with a smile on her face.
Things then take a turn as a prison riot breaks out, during which Peach’s prison inmate love interest is strapped down to an electric chair by the same two prison guards, and electrocuted.
‘Falling apart was the time of my life,’ Peach sings nostalgically over the bubblegum pop track’s punchy drums, as the songstress puts details from her tumultuous teenage years into lyrics.
Fans of the Josh hitmaker were quick to tell Peach that they thought her choice of music video theme, filmed during a recent press tour in the United States, was ‘out of touch’.
One user said the ‘gross romanticisation’ in the video was ‘incredibly disappointing to see’.
‘I don’t understand why this stuff is in the video,’ another added.
‘It already felt iffy to do a prison thing, but the whole ending is so uncomfortable.’
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Fans of the Josh hitmaker were quick to tell Peach that they thought her choice of music video theme, filmed during a recent press tour in the United States, was ‘out of touch’
The self-described ‘lesbian singer’ is now based in Sydney and has 2.2 million followers on TikTok.
Replying to a few of the negative comments, some of which appear to have been deleted, Peach hit back at her fans who criticised the video.
‘Maybe art isn’t made to be always palatable and comfortable but also maybe I don’t have complete control and oversight of every single thing that gets made,’ she replied to the fan who said they didn’t understand the choice.
![Major Aussie pop star criticized for insensitive depiction of women's prison strip searches and death penalty in new music video 17 Peach PRC wears her trademark pink fairy ensemble to prison in the music video for her new single](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/08/23/05/88839215-13771141-image-a-52_1724387103140.jpg)
Peach PRC wears her trademark pink fairy ensemble to prison in the music video for her new single
![Major Aussie pop star criticized for insensitive depiction of women's prison strip searches and death penalty in new music video 19 Meanwhile, many of the singer's fans said that they loved the song and the video and lavished Peach PRC with praise](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/08/23/05/88844013-13771141-image-a-51_1724386883768.jpg)
Meanwhile, many of the singer’s fans said that they loved the song and the video and lavished Peach PRC with praise
Throughout the video, Peach sings over the scenes of chaos and dances in a sultry manner as the editing cuts back to her screaming love interest in the electric chair.
The video shows the prisoner being violently electrocuted, whilst screaming and fighting against restraints, after one of the corrections officers turns on a large lever marked with a ‘Danger High Voltage’ sign.
The first clip that Peach shared to TikTok has been viewed more than 130,000 times by her 2.2 million followers.
While some fans complained about this scene because they interpreted it as showing the death penalty, others were even more upset that it might depict electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), commonly known as shock therapy.
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![Major Aussie pop star criticized for insensitive depiction of women's prison strip searches and death penalty in new music video 23 While some fans complained about this scene showing the death penalty, others were even more upset that it might show electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), commonly known as shock therapy](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/08/23/03/88839187-13771141-image-a-39_1724379154119.jpg)
While some fans complained about this scene showing the death penalty, others were even more upset that it might show electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), commonly known as shock therapy
The psychiatric treatment, which is used in Australia, induces generalised seizures to manage mental disorders.
‘As someone with a close family member who regularly underwent ECT in a psych ward due to debilitating mental illness, this is neither accurate nor an okay thing to trivialise,’ one distressed fan commented.
‘You have a large following that includes mentally unwell individuals drawn to you because of your own transparency around your struggles (myself being one). As a long term fan of your work, this scene was disappointing and triggering at minimum.’
Peach replied: ‘this isn’t ECT??’
‘As someone who has had a fair bit of ECT I’m actually shocked (lol) by this choice,’ another fan wrote in the same thread. ‘We get called zombies, told we’ve been exploited or brain damaged, just for wanting to stay alive and this kind of thing doesn’t help.’
The singer said the second commenter was creating ‘a fake issue’ because she has ‘clarified’ that the scene showed the death penalty, and not ECT, ‘multiple times’.
‘You are literally creating a fake issue to have with this content because this literally has nothing to do with ECT,’ Peach clapped back in her response.
![Major Aussie pop star criticized for insensitive depiction of women's prison strip searches and death penalty in new music video 25 Some of Peach PRC's fans are defending the music video as 'art' that is not supposed to be taken literally, but interpreted, while others are saying that including the scenes means the singer is 'out of touch' with her audience](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/08/23/05/88844015-13771141-image-a-50_1724386880233.jpg)
Some of Peach PRC’s fans are defending the music video as ‘art’ that is not supposed to be taken literally, but interpreted, while others are saying that including the scenes means the singer is ‘out of touch’ with her audience
However, fans were quick to say that the death penalty ‘isn’t something to make light of either.’
Daily Mail Australia has approached Peach PRC and Island Records for comment.
Peach PRC is the stage persona of Shaylee Curnow, a former stripper from Adelaide who dropped out of school in Year 10.
She is one of Australia’s most prominent social media personalities and rose to international fame by sharing stories of her struggles with addiction, mental health, trauma, and relationships on TikTok.
Peach PRC’s debut EP, Manic Dream Pixie, rocketed to the top of the ARIA Album Charts in May 2023 shortly after its release.
However, the young star struggles with anxieties around performing live at major festivals such as Splendour in the Grass, Spilt Milk, and Falls Festival and has regularly spoken about this on TikTok.
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