K-Pop girl group Mamamoo have been forced to apologise after performing Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars hit ‘Uptown Funk’ in blackface.
The Korean group played a show in Seoul on Friday (March 3) where they aired a parody video of themselves covering the song while wearing face paint and similar outfits to those worn in its video.
Fans later took to Twitter to express shock at the group’s actions. See a photo below.
https://twitter.com/elitejeon/status/837849422167957506
Mamamoo have since taken to Facebook to issue a statement in which they apologise for their “insensitive actions” and say that “there is no excuse for what we did”.
안녕하세요. RBW 입니다.마마무 앵콜콘서트를 통해 공개 된 마크론슨의 '업타운펑크' 패러디 영상이 흑인 비하 오해를 불러 일으켜 인터넷 커뮤니티와 각종 SNS를 통해 논란이 불거지고 있습니다.콘서트를…
Posted by 마마무 Mamamoo on Saturday, March 4, 2017
Their full statement reads: “We are extremely sorry for our insensitive actions and use of blackface in our video while portraying Bruno Mars. There is no excuse for what we did and there are not enough words to explain how regretful we are. We are heartbroken to have hurt our international K-Pop fans so deeply.”
“We love and care so much for all people of every race, sexuality, religion, and gender. We love all our fans and are so sorry to have hurt our fans in the black community.”
“We understand now why our actions were wrong and we never meant to do harm with our video. We were extremely ignorant of blackface and did not understand the implications of our actions.”
“We will be taking time to understand more about our international fans to ensure this never happens again. We hope that you will help to educate us on these and other issues so that we can become better people and better artists.”
“Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention and allowing us to right the wrongs that we have done.”
Mamamoo also caused controversy last year after member Hwasa sang the n-word in a cover of Beyoncé’s ‘Irreplaceable’.