Sam Smith fans mistakenly believed the performer slammed into the ground in a shocking stage dive after a video went viral via Twitter.
In the painful footage, someone dressed in a Ninja Turtle costume threw themselves into a crowd — but wasn’t caught by audience members.
After Twitter users mistakenly labeled the performer as Smith, the 31-year-old singer began trending on the platform.
After trolls spread the social media upload — while simultaneously body-shaming the person featured — the rumor was finally debunked when a video from a different angle came to light.
“Despite various ACCOUNTS spreading false information. Sam Smith DID not stage dive at any Concert,” one fan wrote, clarifying that the video was of a man jumping into a Vanilla Ice crowd in Oregon over the weekend.
“The obsession right wingers have with Sam Smith has combined with their affinity for fake news & false information,” another Twitter user added. “This is so CLEARLY not Sam, they have truly never fact checked a day in their life.”
Smith, who identifies as non-binary and uses “they/them” pronouns, was similarly defended by fans when their “I’m Not Here to Make Friends” music video came out, featuring them in a range of sexy and skin-baring outfits.
Amid conservative backlash over the Grammy winner allegedly “shoving [their sexuality] in everyone’s face,” fans took to Twitter to clap back.
“Sex has always been a running theme in modern pop music, and music videos often flaunt it,” one user wrote. “But Sam Smith has made the criminal offence of being a) queer and b) not skinny, and in an increasingly anti-LGBTQ culture, that can’t be tolerated.”
The following month, Smith told the Sunday Times they “have the opposite of body dysmorphia.”
The songwriter explained, “I look fabulous. … I feel liberated, released from pressures I felt when I was young.”
Smith came out in 2019 after “a lifetime of being at war with [their] gender.”
In a lengthy Instagram post, the American Music Award winner wrote, “I’ve decided to embrace myself for who I am, inside and out. … Feeling super free right now. Be kind.”
