Despite attempting to honor Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade with a romantic TikTok video, Vanity Fair is facing backlash from fans over their controversial choice of song.
The page’s TikTok account shared several videos featuring various celebrities attending their Vanity Fair Oscars after party on March 2.
Union and Wade appeared in one of the videos, dressed in formal attire and posing for the press. Wade wore a casual black suit with a bowtie, while Union dazzled in a black dress adorned with gold floral decorations. Although the couple looked stunning, fans were quickly drawn to the song the media outlet chose to accompany the clip.
In the background of Wade and Union’s video, Candi Staton’s 1976 hit, “Young Hearts Run Free,” plays. At first listen, the disco track has a fun, upbeat tempo that encourages listeners to get up and dance.
However, the lyrics convey a more somber message, advising “young hearts” to “run free” rather than becoming entangled in a painful and tear-filled relationship.
In the song, Staton sings, “What’s the sense in sharing this one and only life? Endin’ up just another lost and lonely wife. You’ll count up the years and they will be filled with tears. Love only breaks up to start over again. You’ll get the babies, but you won’t have your man. While he is busy loving every woman that he can.”
Fans were left stunned by the song choice and promptly reacted in Vanity Fair’s TikTok comment section.
“Hey, so this song choice is insane,” one commenter wrote. Another asked, “Did yall listen to the lyrics before selecting this song or you chose it KNOWING we were coming?” A third added, This song choice is Wicked.”
Others saw nothing wrong with the song. One person said, “I love the song, i think it’s really cool.” A second said, “Classic song, classic couple.”
Last year, in an episode of “Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution,” Staton shared one traumatic experience she endured at the hands of her unidentified husband.
She was performing as an opening act for Ray Charles in Las Vegas and decided to stay in the audience and watch Charles once her bit was done. Her ex-husband was walking in the aisles trying to find her but couldn’t and she ignored him. This frustrated him and as they were heading back to their room he went “completely nuts.”
He was pushing her all the way to her room on the 20th floor and once they arrived he began to threaten her even more.
She recalled him saying he was going to end her life that night. “‘I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do, I’m gonna throw you off the balcony,’” she recalled.
Staton said her ex picked her up and held her over the balcony but she was able to talk him out of it by telling him that the hotel was owned by the mafia and that he wouldn’t make it out of Vegas.
She said she asked him “How are you going to feel with my body splattered at the bottom and my name is on the marquee.”
To Staton’s recollection, her husband brought her back inside and said he would shoot her instead.
“I said, ‘Just shoot me .’ That’s how Young Hearts Run Free came about.”
Producer David Crawford wrote the song for Staton after she confided in him about her struggling to get out of her toxic marriage.
The song made it to No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and No. 1 on Billboard R&B charts.
Wade and Union have been married for 10 years and have had no public record of domestic violence in their marriage. While they admitted for their 10-year anniversary that “year nine was hard” the two still seem to be going strong in their union. They share their 6-year-old daughter Kaavia Wade together and Wade has two sons Zaire and Xavier Wade and another daughter Zaya, from previous relationships.
