American pop star Lady Gaga has issued a public apology for her 2013 single "DO What U Want" featuring R. Kelly, an American R&B singer whose career has long been plagued by allegations of sexual abuse of women and underage girls – accusations which he has repeatedly and vehemently denied.
In a lengthy message posted on Twitter on Thursday, Lady Gaga described the allegations against R. Kelly as "absolutely horrifying and indefensible", and promised to remove the song from "iTunes and other streaming artists", vowing to never work with him again.
"As a victim of sexual assault myself, I made both the song and video at a dark time in my life, my intention was to create something extremely defiant and provocative because I was angry and still hadn’t processed the trauma that had occurred in my own life," she stated.
The singer’s apology elicited a somewhat mixed reaction from her audience, with some praising her for the move.
Others urged her not to remove the song but rather replace it with a different version which does not feature R. Kelly.
A number of people, however, apparently did not regard the singer’s apology as sincere.
According to The Independent, Lady Gaga delivered her apology after she “came under scrutiny towards the end of last year” when a producer of Surviving R Kelly, a new documentary detailing sexual abuse allegations against the musician, said they approached Gaga to be interviewed in the film but she declined.
On January 3, Timothy Savage, a man who claims that his adult daughter is being held against her will by R. Kelly, also filed a complaint with the police, insisting that the musician’s manager threatened him over his participation in the documentary, NBC News reports.