It's a complicated time for Avril Lavigne. The pop rock princess released a new music video to her song "Hello Kitty" on Wednesday, April 23, and the visuals received almost immediate backlash.
The clip shows Lavigne, 29, taking on the Japanese quality of kawaii, eating sushi and sake, and dancing with Japanese backup dancers as she opens the song singing in Japanese in an over-the-top manner -- moves some saw as a racist exploitation of the culture.
The wife to Nickelback rocker Chad Kroegertook to Twitter on Wednesday evening to laugh off the claims. "RACIST??? LOLOLOL!!! I love Japanese culture and I spend half of my time in Japan. I flew to Tokyo to shoot this video…" Lavigne wrote. "…specifically for my Japanese fans, WITH my Japanese label, Japanese choreographers AND a Japanese director IN Japan."
The "Complicated" singer went on to encourage fans to watch her controversial video, tweeting out the link to the visuals.
"Hello Kitty" is the latest single off of Lavigne's self-titled 2013 album. The project was her least-successful to date, peaking at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 after posting her lowest album sales.
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