The British singer denies she tries to degrade the black ladies who twerk with her in the new music video, tweeting, 'If I could dance like the ladies can, it would have been my arse on your screens.'
- Nov 14, 2013
AceShowbiz - The fun music video for Lily Allen's comeback single, "Hard Out Here", has drawn criticism about racism. Some people think the British singer's trying to degrade other race by hiring several black ladies to twerk with her in the clip, which was meant to be a parody on pop culture.
Allen has responded to the criticism. In a lengthy statement entitled "Privilege, Superiority and Misconceptions" posted on Twitlonger on Wednesday, November 13, the artist defended her decision to hire the black female dancers and insisted that the video had "nothing to do with race."
"1. If anyone thinks for a second that I requested specific ethnicities for the video, they're wrong," Allen said. "2. If anyone thinks that after asking the girls to audition, I was going to send any of them away because of the color of their skin, they're wrong."
Allen went on explaining the message behind the Christopher Sweeney-directed video. "3. The message is clear," she continued. "Whilst I don't want to offend anyone. I do strive to provoke thought and conversation. The video is meant to be a lighthearted satirical video that deals with objectification of women within modern pop culture. It has nothing to do with race, at all."
The mother of two then revealed that she tried to perfect her twerk during a two-week rehearsal, "but failed miserably." So, that's why she decided to leave the twerking things to the experts. "If I could dance like the ladies can, it would have been my arse on your screens," she added. "If I was a little braver, I would have been wearing a bikini too, but I do not and I have chronic cellulite, which nobody wants to see."
"What I'm trying to say is that me being covered up has nothing to do with me wanting to disassociate myself from the girls, it has more to do with my own insecurities and I just wanted to feel as comfortable as possible on the shoot day," Allen said before telling people that she wouldn't apologize for anything.
"Hard Out Here" marks Allen's first original song since 2009. The song is expected to be featured in the singer's yet-to-be-titled album that is planned to drop next year.
