Omarion Has Heard All The Omicron Jokes But Says You Don’t Need ‘A Negative Test’ To Dance To His Music

The arrival of the omicron COVID-19 variant is the reason why many musicians are canceling their events and performances all across the country. But when the coronavirus strain first broke out in the US, R&B fans flocked to Twitter to decide that dubbing the new variant the Omarion variant was a much catchier term. After a wave of memes, the “Touch” singer has finally addressed the jokes and assured fans they don’t need to “have a negative test result” in order to dance to his music.

Despite the severity of the omicron variant, Omarion was in good humor about all the jokes. The singer shared a cheeky video to TikTok addressing the meme and reminding everyone that he’s an artist and an entertainer, not a COVID-19 variant. “Hi everybody, this is Omarion. I am an artist, not a variant,” he said in the video. “So please be aware that if you just so happen to run into me on the street, you don’t have to isolate for five days, nor do you have to have a negative test result in order to dance to my music. So please, be safe, be healthy, happy new year.”

Watch Omarion address the omicron jokes above.

Diddy Canceled His Annual New Year’s Eve Party Over COVID Concerns For The Second Time

Almost as much as he’s known for his long string of hits or his outsized personality and antics as a businessman, Diddy is notorious for his lavish parties, including his over-the-top, all-white Memorial Day shindigs and his blowout New Year’s Eve celebrations each year. However, for the second year in a row, Diddy has canceled his New Year’s Eve party over COVID-19 concerns as the new Omicron variant of the virus — or “Omarion” variant, if you’re feeling cheeky — continues to spread.

According to TMZ, the Omicron surge in Miami, where the party was to be held, convinced Diddy that his 500-guest hootenanny would put him and his fellow stars in jeopardy. This would appear to be a wise move according to the advice of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci, who recommended on CNN to “stay away from that this year,” that being “a New Year’s Eve party, where you have 30, 40, 50 people celebrating, you do not know the status of the vaccination.”

Diddy isn’t the only one to cancel his planned NYE celebration. Four days ago, garage rock revivalists The Strokes announced the cancelation of their own New Year’s Eve concerts, although NBC’s planned special featuring Miley Cyrus and Pete Davidson appears to be proceeding as scheduled. If you’re content with staying in but still fiending for something to do, you can check out TikTok’s own planned concert with Rico Nasty, Charlie Puth, and Kali Uchis from the comfort of whichever device you use to scroll the hours away.

The New Variant Of COVID Has Been Redubbed The ‘Omarion Variant’ By Cheeky Fans

R&B fans might have been surprised to wake up to find singer Omarion’s name trending on Twitter this morning, as he hasn’t announced a new album and isn’t the type to get himself into the sort of legal trouble that usually prompts widespread discussion of a legacy artist. Instead, curious Twitter users would have found that there’s a new variant of COVID-19 roaming the streets, after “Black Twitter” noticed the similarities between “omicron” and “Omarion” and have apparently decided the latter is not only much catchier but also riper for making memes.

And so, we’ve gotten a slew of clips from Omarion’s 2005 “Touch” video with cheeky captions like, “Not the Omarion variant and the booster having a lil tussle” and “The Omarion Variant chasing me down like.” There are also other jokey captions roasting the singer’s recent performance in Chicago that has apparently gone (ahem) viral on TikTok, with one user quipping, “They say in order to keep the Omarion Variant away, you have to do this routine 3 times in the mirror.”

Of course, in the face of a scary new mutation of the COVID-19 virus, using a little humor to lighten the mood serves an important purpose even as it highlights the need for these scientists to come up with better names for things (I’m no Greek expert, but it seems like they skipped a bunch of letters between delta and omicron, no?). Still, though, get your vaccine, if you’re vaccinated, get your booster, and continue to practice safety measures like distancing and wearing a mask in public — we’re not out of the woods yet. Check out more “Omarion variant” jokes below.