Avril Lavigne is standing by her latest video, "Hello Kitty," after critics and social media users attacked the pop star and labeled the video as racist, ABC News reported.
The colorful video features the 29-year-old singer wearing a cupcake tutu, singing phrases like "arigato" and dancing in a candy store with Asian background dancers dressed in matching outfits. In the video, Lavigne also pays the guitar and is served sushi and sake.
At one point, Lavigne sings in Japanese while walking down a Tokyo street, waving to unseen fans. The "Complicated" singer calls the upbeat tune, co-written by husband/Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger, "flirtatious and somewhat sexual."
Shortly after the Asian-themed video debuted on Tuesday, it quickly drew complaints, with critics calling it an insult to Japanese culture.
"Not sure if this Avril Lavigne video is terrible, racist or terribly racist," podcast host @desusnice tweeted Tuesday.
"[This] video is an embarrassment in any language," Billboard magazine's Jason Lipshutz wrote.
"Incredibly cringe worthy," pronounced one.
Billboard slammed the video calling out Lavigne for "parading around with four identical, creepily expressionless Asian women...performing mind-numbingly generic dance moves, in locales like a bedroom, a candy store and a street."
"The video is an homage to all the things she loves about Japan," Lavigne's representative told ABC News Radio. "Food, fashion, fun!"
A representative for YouTube confirmed to MTV News that the video was removed from the site after it was first uploaded on Wednesday. Lavigne's fans can still view the video on the singer's website. The singer said the video's removal was due not to the controversy, but because it was posted a day early.
"It was not pulled from YouTube," her rep said, "but it was GEO BLOCKED as VEVO is set to premiere it exclusively tomorrow! Fans were ripping the video and posting to YouTube and then getting removed due to the geo-blocking."
The singer took to Twitter to address the controversy surrounding the video, writing: "RACIST??? LOLOLOL!!! I love Japanese culture and I spend half of my time in Japan. I flew to Tokyo to shoot this video... ...specifically for my Japanese fans, WITH my Japanese label, Japanese choreographers AND a Japanese director IN Japan."
What do you think of the pop star's latest video?
