Pop singer Billie Eilish said Monday she is “appalled and embarrassed” after an old video showing her apparently lip syncing an anti-Asian racial slur went viral on social media.
Ms. Eilish mouthed the racial slur in one video, and in another video she is accused of imitating an accent. One week after the videos first made headlines, the seven-time Grammy winner is admitting to singing a song with lyrics that contained the slur, but she denied mocking any accents.
“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,” she wrote in an Instagram story. “I am appalled and embarrassed and want to barf that I ever mouthed along to that word.”
Addressing the second video, Ms. Eilish explained that she was speaking in a “silly gibberish made up voice,” something she said she does often, and was not imitating an accent.
“Anyone who knows me has seen me goofing around with voices my whole life,” she wrote. “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 labeled now in a way that might cause pain to people hearing it.
“I not only believe in, but have always worked hard to use my platform to fight for inclusion, kindness, tolerance, equity and equality,” she added.
