“I strive to provoke thought and conversation,” singer says in statement

Nov 14, 2013 20:46 GMT  ·  By
Lily Allen in a still from her brand new, tongue in cheek video, “Hard Out Here”
   Lily Allen in a still from her brand new, tongue in cheek video, “Hard Out Here”

Lily Allen is back on the scene and, just hours after the release of her brand new video, for the single “Hard Out Here,” she’s already backed into a corner and half-forced to explain herself. However, she has no intention of apologizing for the video, so if you were expecting that… don’t.

The video for Lily’s new single is a commentary on today’s pop culture, pretty much like most of her releases. So, it includes twerking, suggestive images, flashing cash and expensive cars, plastic surgery, and weight-related jabs.

Because *it contains images and language that might offend, we can’t embed it here, but you can see it in full on Lily Allen’s VEVO. If you check it out while listening to the words of the song, you can see it’s tongue in cheek.

However, judging by Lily’s statement on TwitLonger, some people didn’t see it in this light and even complained that she used only African-American women to dance in the background.

“The message is clear. Whilst I don’t want to offend anyone. I do strive to provoke thought and conversation. The video is meant to be a lighthearted satirical video that deals with objectification of women within modern pop culture. It has nothing to do with race, at all,” the singer says.

As for complaints that she kept her clothes on and didn’t dance in the video, while the other ladies did, Lily said she would have done both if she could.

“If I could dance like the ladies can, it would have been my [backside] on your screens; I actually rehearsed for two weeks trying to perfect my twerk, but failed miserably. If I was a little braver, I would have been wearing a bikini too, but I do not and I have chronic cellulite, which nobody wants to see. What I’m trying to say is that me being covered up has nothing to do with me wanting to disassociate myself from the girls, it has more to do with my own insecurities and I just wanted to feel as comfortable as possible on the shoot day,” she explains.

Lily ends her message by saying she has no intention of apologizing if people took offense because that would imply admitting to having done something wrong. She clearly doesn’t think she was in the wrong with the video.