Colleen Ballinger, who is known for her messily lipsticked YouTube character Miranda Sings, is being criticized for an old video in which she appeared in dark, smudged makeup potentially mistaken as blackface while performing Beyoncé’s hit “Single Ladies.”
British social media influencer Paige Christie shared the Miranda Sings clip to Twitter with the caption, “I’m gonna need someone to explain the black on her face….”
A Ballinger representative told TheWrap she was not made up in blackface but instead had in a previous number performed a song from the musical “Wicked” with Oliver Tompsett, a star from the show, and still had green makeup from that performance applied.
“She painted her face green like the witch,” Ballinger rep Andrew Brettler said in an email. “After that number, she went right into “Single Ladies” (while still wearing the green makeup). At that time, she closed all her shows with that Beyoncé number — it was one of her most popular bits.”
Meanwhile, the clip, which was uploaded to YouTube five years ago, is still up on Miranda Sings, although it is unlisted. Comments are still enabled and include YouTubers telling her, “Bestie you’ll need a guitar for this apology,” and, “Girl you’re going to need a whole band for this apology,” referring to the ukulele ditty she created about allegations of inappropriate behavior with young fans.
That song included the lyrics, “I’m sorry I’m not gonna take that route / of admitting to lies and rumors that you made up for clout,” and “the only thing I’ve ever groomed is my two Persian cats / I’m not a groomer, just a loser.”
The singer, who is from Tacoma, Washington, apologized in 2020 for a video in which she and a friend pretended be Latina. “It is not funny, and it is completely hurtful,” she said in a follow-up video. “I am so ashamed and embarrassed that I ever thought this was OK. I was a sheltered teenager who was stupid and ignorant and clearly extremely culturally insensitive… Racial stereotypes are not funny, they’re not a joke and they should never be joked about.”
She was also recently accused of racist behavior on the set of her Netflix series “Haters Back Off!” by a former assistant. The comedy series, which also costarred “The Office” alum Angela Kinsey, ran from 2016 to 2017.
