For the past two seasons, this guy named Rob Rausch has been appearing on Love Island, the American adaptation of the British dating reality show. Rob is a big fan of UK indie-pop star Beabadoobee, and he keeps endorsing her music on-air, despite his castmates seemingly having no idea who that is. Rob says, “It’s just, like, sweet music. The words are sad, but it sounds happy.” This has apparently been a whole thing.

@editsbyyym when he’s a beabadoobee fan>>> (pls dont turn out to be a bad guy rob) #loveisland #loveislandusa #loveislandusaseason6 #robloveisland @Love Island USA ♬ original sound – ・₊✧

@allroundedit @Beabadoobee @BILLIE EILISH #loveislandusa original sound – denise

https://www.tiktok.com/@louissmissingpinky/video/7392427092060687647

Beabadoobee is currently getting ready to release her new album This Is How Tomorrow Moves, and while she doesn’t watch Love Island, she has noticed that people keep bringing up this Rob guy in her various social-media comments sections. Finally, Beabadoobee was recently moved to ask, “guys who is rob?”

rob might not win the money on love island but now beabadoobee knows who he is so i think he’ll be fine pic.twitter.com/7lNv4Vw9zn

— layla (@slutallite) July 18, 2024

Now that Beabadoobee knows who Rob is, she’s been made aware of the valuable services that he’s provided — not only mentioning her on a popular streaming series but also telling people how to pronounce her name. During some kind of recent webcast situation, Beabadoobee thanked Rob for his work and also addressed her apparent fanbase schism between Love Island people and non-Love Island people:

Rob! Like, the fuck? I see all these comments, like, “If you’re from Love Island in this comments section, fuck off!” Or like, “You don’t have to know about him! Fuck this! Blah blah blah blah blah!” I’m not gonna lie: I will not stand for the Rob hate because that motherfucker put so much people onto my music and I rate it. So love you, Rob. Hope you like the album. I haven’t watched the show, no. I don’t really know him, don’t know what he’s like. But, I mean, it’s flooding my fucking comments section.

Gatekeeping is so two years ago. Give it a rest. Give it a fucking rest! I also think it’s quite funny ’cause not many would think someone from Love Island would listen to my music, let alone a man as well. That’s mad. But I see there’s more of a likeliness for that to happen in American than in the UK, if I’m being honest. Dunno why.

@susiem4yy i love her bye omg #beabadoobee #rob #loveisland #robloveisland #loveislandrob #bea #fyp #fypツ #foryou #susiem4yy @Beabadoobee ♬ original sound –

Much like Beabadoobee, I don’t know anything about any of this shit. Scott made me write this.