Celebrity News April 24, 2014
Avril Lavigne: LOL over 'Hello Kitty' Backlash
Singer Avril Lavigne isn't too concerned over the controversy surrounding her latest music video, “Hello Kitty.”
The video -- which features the 29-year-old singer dancing around Tokyo in a tutu with a quartet of Asian women dressed in matching outfits -- has been slammed for its depiction of Japanese pop culture.
Billboard called it a "trainwreck" for its "Japan fetishization" and called out Lavigne for "parading around with four identical, creepily expressionless Asian women."
Some of Avril's fans were also bothered, tweeting their objections and calling it “offensive” and “racist.”
The pop star, however, thinks it all baloney. She tweeted, "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."
“Hello Kitty” serves as the fourth single from Lavigne's self-titled fifth studio album.