Billie Eilish apologizes for racial slur

Music star Billie Eilish apologized Monday for a years-old video in which she repeated a racial slur while singing along to rap lyrics by another artist.

"[I] love you guys, and many of you have been asking me to address this," Eilish, a wunderkind who at 19 is a multiplatinum singer-songwriter and seven-time Grammy Award winner, wrote in virtually all-lowercase graphical text on Instagram Stories, where posts cycle out after 24 hours. "[A]nd this is something that i WANT to address because i'm being labeled something that i am not. 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. i am appalled and embarrassed and want to barf that i ever mouthed along to that word."

The term appears in the lyrics of the 2011 song "Fish" by hip-hop artist Tyler, The Creator (né Tyler Okonma), who has not commented publicly. Eilish, looking visibly very young, uses it within an amateur "mashup" of multiple split-second clips from various old videos, posted by TikTok user "lcxvy" on June 13. The original creator of the edited clips is uncertain; a short version of the compilation had been posted by Twitter user "irlkel" as early as Aug. 7, 2020.

Eilish in her apology said: "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."

She also apologized for an earlier portion of the mashup in which she speaks gibberish that many have taken to be making fun of Asian accents.

Saying the "silly … made up voice" was "something i started doing as a kid and have done my whole life when talking to my pets, friends, and family," Eilish stated that it was "in NO way an imitation of anyone or any language, accent, or culture in the SLIGHTEST." She added that "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."

Eilish went on to say, "i not only believe in, but have always worked hard to use my platform to fight for inclusion, kindness, tolerance, equity and equality. we all need to continue having conversations, listening and learning."