Ne-Yo and Pitbull had a chart-topping hit in 2011 called “Give Me Everything”. The collaboration worked so well for them that they are doing it again. The new tune is called “Time of Our Lives” and this time it will be on Pitbull’s upcoming album Globalization.
While that may be good news for Pitbull and Ne-Yo, it could be decidedly bad news for poor Zoe Fennessy.
Fennessy, 26, has an epileptic seizure every time she hears the pair’s original song. She literally freezes up, vomits, and is almost catatonic.
I know, I know. Lots of people react poorly to Ne-Yo. But this one appears to be medically legit.
“I don’t dislike Ne-Yo or his music, it just dislikes me unfortunately,” Fennessy told SWNS. She seems to particularly have difficulty with song.
“It took me a while to realize that [the seizures] were being triggered by his songs, and I think it wasn’t until I had heard it for about the 15th time that it finally twigged what was going on,” said Fennessy.
Her doctors agree that it is indeed Ne-Yo’s voice that makes Fennessy ill.
“During her admission [to the hospital] she was listening to the radio on her iPhone when a specific song came on the radio that triggers her fits,” her doctor explained. That song was the Ne-Yo/Pitbull tune.
“She called for assistance at this point and she was noted to be shaking and looking rather anxious and acting a bit confused. The following day we deliberately played the song and exactly the same symptoms arose.”
Earlier this year, Fennessy had surgery to remove a huge chunk of her left temporal lobe where the seizures seem to originate. Her symptoms have reduced, but she still has the seizures, which last for about 15 seconds and leave her feeling nauseous, very thirsty, and very sleepy.
And the worst part of it is that Ne-Yo’s songs seems to be everywhere.
“[My doctor] said it was fascinating and that he had never heard anything like it, she said, “and I said that while it might be fascinating, I was really struggling – the song was everywhere at the time.
“I’ll be walking around the supermarket doing my food shopping and I have to put my earphones in to listen to my own music just in case it comes on. It’s the same with most shops. I have to walk in with my ear phones in at first just to make sure they don’t have Ne-Yo on. Whenever I hear the first few beats of the song I have to drop whatever I am doing and run.”
And now it’s not just the Pitbull collabo. It’s everything he sings.
“If he ever releases a greatest hits album it’s going to be a nightmare. People might think it is funny – and I can laugh at it myself – but it has taken over my life. It’s ruined my life.”