K-pop group Kiss of Life share handwritten apology for controversial broadcast

Dubai: K-pop girl group Kiss Of Life apologised to fans in a recent post on Instagram, after facing backlash over a controversial live broadcast on April 2.

The girl group celebrated fellow member, Julie’s, birthday on a live broadcast on YouTube, with the theme, ‘old school hip-hop’. The members however, dressed up and imitated hip-hop artists, which viewers found culturally inappropriate and insensitive.

During the stream, which has now been deleted from YouTube and re-uploaded by fans, the members were seen wearing snapback hats, oversized chains and even had cornrows. The members were also seen lip-syncing to songs and displaying a photo of three Black men as inspiration for their outfits.

Some netizens on social media said, “What Kiss of Life did is modern day blackface and cultural mockery. Dressing up as Black people like we’re Halloween costumes, while indulging in exaggerated stereotypes? This wasn’t accidental. They sat down, planned this, and got dressed.”

On April 3, the group’s agency, S2 Entertainment, released a statement in English apologising for the video. The statement read:

“We sincerely apologise for causing discomfort to our viewers. The true purpose of the content was to celebrate hip hop culture, which serves as much of the musical inspiration for KISS OF LIFE. However, we apologise for our shortcomings in recognising the negative cultural implications that our content could be perceived to have.

Our members and team promise to approach cultural references with greater caution and respect moving forward. All related content has been removed from all of our channels. Thank you.”

The members, after a long silence, released their own apology. On April 6, the members shared a handwritten apology to their fans on Instagram.

The statement read:

“To all our Kissys [Kiss Of Life’s fandom],

We really want to sincerely apologize for the content that was uploaded that caused so much disappointment to our fans. We have to seem calm on the outside but the time leading up to this letter has honestly been hard. Although we wanted to and should’ve addressed this sooner, we are taking the first opportunity to address it now.

We are sorry.
Our intention was to show how much we loved the category of old school hip hop because it greatly influences our music. While shooting the content we ended up taking the concept too far. We realize now that our content was culturally insensitive and take full responsibility for our actions and can only promise to do better.

We’ve spent the past few days learning and reflecting how our actions have disappointed many of you. We know that there is nothing we can say or do that will magically fix the mistake we made. The only thing that we can promise is that we’ll continue to educate ourselves and show our sincerity through our actions rather than words.

Our mission has always been to spread confidence and love through our music. We truly regret the choices we made and are genuinely sorry for any pain and distress we have caused our fans. This situation has been a valuable learning experience for us. Our Kissy’s [sic] support means the world to us and we will continue to honour you all in every way possible.”

Recently, popular girl group, BlackPink also faced backlash over a leaked video of them singing along to a track containing the N-word.