Shine OnCouple announce their breakup with touching YouTube song
Breaking up is hard to do. After the painfully admitting to each other that what was once a beautiful new love is now dead in the water comes the awkward task of telling your friends that you and so-and-so are no longer an item.
One Brooklyn couple decided to take the sting out of their breakup announcement by writing a song about their relationship's demise and posting it to YouTube for their friends, family and all the world to see.
Jonathan Mann, 30, and Ivory King, 31, of hipster mecca Williamsburg, New York, composed and performed the song together in the hopes that it would be a cathartic final act, Mann tells the New York Daily News.
Their decidedly matter-of-fact announcement that, despite their love for each other, they have to breakup because he wants kids and she doesn't, has sent many of internet hearts weeping.
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Mann is a musician and has been writing and recording a song every single day since January 1, 2009 for his Song a Day project, and King, who is also a musician, frequently helps him out.
"We've been together for so long that we have so many mutual friends, and it was a big thing to sort of split that up," Mann tells the Daily News. "But people are being super supportive. They're happy that we made this and that it's amicable between us."
The reason for the end of their five year relationship is common enough. The internet is awash with forums and advice columns about what to do when one partner wants babies and the other doesn't, with no consensus on whether or not the relationship hurdle can be overcome.
Some columnists advise waiting it out, as the future is unknowable and circumstances and feeling could change, while others advocate cutting your losses early while you still have time to find a mate who wants a child.
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Mann and King have clearly opted for the latter, and their musical announcement is getting mixed reviews. The folks over at Jezebel hailed the song, with lyrics like "Invite us to your parties, we will work it out", as "extremely charming", but many of their readers found the breakup anthem less than adorable.
"This is the ultimate in self-important hipster garbage…you are not special, sparkly snowflakes," wrote one commenter. "This should have been a personal thing for them, not presented to everyone else."
But the majority thought it was either lovely or painfully close to home.
"We're three years in and I do a check in to make sure we're on the same page and BAM he says he doesn't ever see himself getting married or having kids."
Love it or hate it, Mann and King's video has garnered more than 139,000 views after only two days online. Perhaps the internet fame will help ease the pain of a broken heart.
