Billie Eilish has apologised after a video resurfaced which shows her mouthing a racial slur, saying she is “appalled and embarrassed”.
An edited compilation of multiple videos went viral on TikTok last week, one of which featured Eilish mouthing an anti-Asian racial slur while mouthing along to Tyler, the Creator’s 2011 song “Fish”. Another clip saw Eilish alter her speech, in what some fans interpreted as her imitating different accents.
The “Bad Guy” singer addressed the videos in an Instagram story shared on Monday night (21 June).
“I love you guys, and many of you have been asking me to address this. And this is something that I WANT to address because I’m being labelled something that I am not,” she wrote.
“There’s a video edit going around of me when I was 13 or 14 where I mouthed a word from a song that at the time I didn’t know was a derogatory term used against members of the Asian community,” Eilish continued. “I am appalled and embarrassed and want to barf that I ever mouthed along to that word.
“This song was the only time I’d ever heard that word as it was never used around me by anyone in my family. Regardless of my ignorance and age at the time, nothing excuses the fact is that it was hurtful. And for that I am sorry.”
However, Eilish said that the clip which some fans had interpreted as her imitating different accents was “silly gibberish” that was not intended to represent “anyone or any language, accent or culture”.
“The other video in that edited clip is me speaking in a silly gibberish made up voice,” she wrote. “Something I started doing as a kid and have done my whole life when talking to my pets, friends and family.
(Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
“It is absolute gibberish and just me goofing around, and is in NO way an imitation of anyone or any language, accent or culture in the SLIGHTEST.”
She continued: “Anyone who knows me has seen me goofing around with voices my whole life. Regardless of how it was interpreted I did not mean for any of my actions to have caused hurt to others and it absolutely breaks my heart that it is being labelled now in a way that might cause pain to people hearing it.”
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The singer-songwriter concluded by saying that she wants to use her platform “to fight for inclusion, kindness, tolerance, equity and equality”, and urged her followers to “continue having conversations, listening and learning”.
Over the weekend, the singer’s reported boyfriend Matthew Tyler Vorce also made headlines after Eilish’s fans resurfaced racist, homophobic and fat-shaming posts he allegedly wrote on Twitter and Facebook.
The actor, who is thought to have been dating the Grammy-winning singer since April, issued the apology after old posts – where he allegedly used offensive language and slurs about Black and gay people – were shared on social media.
