Avril Lavigne "Hello Kitty" video racks up page views after racism flap

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      There's nothing like a little controversy to help revive a pop star's career.

      Avril Lavigne has tweeted that her "Hello Kitty" video has become the best-selling iTunes music video in Brazil.

      It's ranked second in Canada and fourth in the United States.

      The video shows Lavigne, the 29-year-old pride of Belleville, Ontario, singing in Japanese in front of robotic Japanese dancers.

      That prompted complains of racism in some quarters and the video received massive publicity when it was pulled from YouTube.

      On her Twitter feed, Lavigne fired back at the criticism with this statement over two tweets: "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."

      Lavigne's star had faded in much of the western world to the point where she was best known as the wife of Nickelback's Chad Kroeger. But she has remained popular in Japan.

      With the release of the video, media outlets are talking about her again, even if many of the commentators loathe the song.

      It makes me wonder if some clever public-relations person might have whipped up this racism controversy to give Lavigne's career a positive jolt.

      If so, this spin doctor deserves a very rich reward.

      Comments

      26 Comments

      Trank

      Apr 26, 2014 at 11:21am

      Doesn't seem racist, just bad.

      not racist, not racy enough : (

      Apr 26, 2014 at 3:07pm

      is she trying to be like yolandi?
      (the hair, the singing style)
      just be yourself ; you were good at that!

      Kiki

      Apr 27, 2014 at 1:49am

      The most offensive thing about this video was the terrible lip syncing!

      flagrant

      Apr 27, 2014 at 5:36am

      Its not racist, it just sucks.

      Lucas

      Apr 27, 2014 at 5:57am

      It's so bad, that it's good. Brilliant Coup tbh. And neither the Song nor the Video are racist.

      Venice

      Apr 27, 2014 at 6:08am

      I am Japanese, I don't find this video racist. But the video and the singing is just awful and lame.

      Aanchal

      Apr 27, 2014 at 6:51am

      This is what she does always , doing new stuffs thats it. not racist at all

      Selfie

      Apr 27, 2014 at 6:57am

      Does Chad still have the ability to go down on himself?

      Uhh

      Apr 27, 2014 at 7:32am

      Canada has a white musician, Brenna MacCrimmon, who sings nothing but Turkish and Balkan music, speaks near-perfect Turkish, and is quite the house-hold name in Turkey while she is virtually unheard of in Canada. The same goes for another white Canadian, Da Shan (Mark Henry Rowswell), this time a flawless Mandarin Chinese-speaking stand-up comedian who has famous throughout China and Taiwan since the 1980s, unknown in Canada. Neither one of them is racist for adopting another culture and language and embracing it as their own. Heck, Ireland's Enya has sung in Japanese---her first language is Gaelic and Japan just loves her. Racism my arse. People can sing and speak whatever language they want and embrace whatever culture that gives them a sense of home. Also, it's always fun to step out of the box and try something new. Good on Avril!

      Carpenter

      Apr 27, 2014 at 7:35am

      "The video shows Lavigne, the 29-year-old pride of Belleville, Ontario, singing in Japanese in front of robotic Japanese dancers."

      Um, no. Only four words are in Japanese. And they are all there in the first lines of the song, so I guess Charlie didn't listen more than those first seconds, if he clicked on the video at all. Typical for B-rate reviewers. I saw one say about Taylor Swift's "Safe and Sound" That "it is about Taylor Swift chasing a deer through the forest, and then it goes up in smoke. Meanwhile the Civil Wars are singing in a cabin while a fire approaches." Kind of like saying Lost in Translation is about Bill Murray butchering the Japanese language.