Just over one month ago, Anthony Key, Evan Papier, Zachary Sobania, and Darshan Magdum debuted their new boy band, Boy Throb. Clad in pink tracksuits, this unknown, unassuming group boldly proclaimed they were going to win a Grammy. There was just one problem, which they made very clear in their first video.
While Key, Papier, and Sobania were dancing together in front of their new rental home in Los Angeles, Magdum was edited in. Boy Throb’s fourth member was “stuck in India,” as he put it. He hadn’t even gotten his tracksuit in the mail yet, further separating him from his bandmates. Without Magdum, the band was incomplete. The solution? Gain one million followers in order to get him into the United States.
Boy Throb’s introduction struck many people as odd. They’re no One Direction or BTS, to put some of the nastier comments nicely. Their first TikTok, one of many goofy and humorously edited videos, ended with an outrageous proposition. “Do you really need one million followers to get a visa?” people asked, over and over again. The band kept making videos, creating parody versions of popular hits like Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild” or Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” about their quest to get Magdum a visa. About half the internet wrote the group off as one big joke — “satire,” as many social media users love to (incorrectly) call it. It didn’t help that this group seemed to come out of nowhere, although long time fans of the individual members knew better. Boy Throb addressed their doubters in a post, assuring people that they are serious artists. The skeptics doubled down.
Haters or not, those million TikTok followers accumulated within a month of their first post. While this ostensibly helps bolster Magdum’s application for an O-1 visa, which is reserved for individuals with “extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics,” they needed more material to strengthen his case. So they put out a direct call to journalists, singing their pleas for press coverage.
This journalist took the bait, unable to resist the opportunity to ask all the questions that people have been posting online. Speaking to Teen Vogue on a video call, Key, Papier, and Sobania gave me some answers. When asked if Magdum would be joining us, Papier says that “time zones will not be in our favor for this call today.” He is actually based in India, despite what conspiracy theorists in Boy Throb’s comments may believe, and it is about 1:30 a.m. there when the rest of the group meets me.