Lady Gaga ‘sorry’ for R. Kelly collaboration
Lady Gaga has said she is sorry for her 2013 duet with R. Kelly in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against the singer, and that she intends to remove the song from streaming services.
“What I am hearing about the allegations against R. Kelly is absolutely horrifying and indefensible,” she said.
Posting on social media, Gaga wrote that she had collaborated with Kelly on Do What U Want (With My Body) during a “dark time” in her life as a victim of sexual assault. She said she should have sought therapy or other help instead.
“I think it’s clear how explicitly twisted my thinking was at the time. If I could go back and have a talk with my younger self I’d tell her to go through the therapy I have since then so that I could understand the confused post-traumatic state that I was in,” she wrote.
“I can’t go back, but I can go forward and continue to support women, men, and people of all sexual identities, and of all races, who are victims of sexual assault.”
Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly documentary series, which aired this month, has brought renewed attention to the singer’s history and allegations that he has sexually abused women and girls. Kelly has denied wrongdoing and in 2008 was acquitted on child pornography charges.
Gaga’s collaboration with Kelly was intensely criticised when it was released, in part because of the allegations against him and because of the sexually charged performances they did on Saturday Night Live and the American Music Awards in 2013.
The video was directed by famed photographer Terry Richardson, who also had been accused of sexual misconduct. It was never officially released, but depicts Kelly as a doctor ogling a naked Gaga, the patient.
Richardson has denied allegations of misconduct and said any relationships he had with models were consensual.
Meanwhile, Nielsen Music says streaming numbers for R. Kelly have nearly doubled since the launch of Surviving R. Kelly.
The singer’s streaming numbers grew significantly during and after the series. His music streamed 870,316 times on January 2, the day before the series premiere, but Nielsen said yesterday that Kelly’s music garnered nearly 1.73 million streams after the sixth episode aired on January 6.
Kelly averaged more than 955,600 streams in the last week of 2018. He averaged more than 1.5 million streams from January 3 to January 6.