miranda sings

There’s Actually An Explanation For The Video Of Colleen Ballinger Supposedly Wearing Blackface And Singing Beyoncé

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Colleen Ballinger Miranda Sings 2015
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After facing grooming allegations and backlash to her widely derided apology video/song, Colleen Ballinger (also known by the name of her character, Miranda Sings) appeared to be facing another controversy. An old video from 2009 resurfaced, in which Ballinger sang Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” during a live show, wearing blackface-like dark makeup all the while. Things weren’t as they may have seemed, though.

A video from the same show shared by TMZ offers a different perspective. The clip includes some of the “Single Ladies” performance, as well as the song before it. In the video, Ballinger sang a song with Oliver Tompsett, star of the Wicked musical. So, she wore green makeup in order to emulate the Wicked Witch of the West character from the show. After the song, Ballinger quickly changed into her Beyoncé outfit and didn’t take the time to remove the dark makeup from her face. So, it was the fast pace of the between-songs transition that, when taken out of context, caused confusion.

As for the grooming allegations, they come from a HuffPost investigative report from June, which featured fans coming forward with “screenshots of their private communications with Ballinger to evidence claims that she ‘groomed’ them throughout their adolescence.” One fan alleged that “Ballinger would bring up sex during their conversations back when he was still 14 or 15 years old.”

Colleen Ballinger Wore What Appears To Be Blackface While Covering Beyoncé In A Resurfaced Video

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Colleen Ballinger Miranda Sings Nickelodeon's 2023 Kids' Choice Awards
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Colleen Ballinger (also known as her character Miranda Sings) is in a rough spot at the moment. In June, she faced allegations of grooming, which she responded to with a video in which she plays ukulele and addresses the situation through song. The video, as you might expect based on how I just described it, was poorly received.

Now, another apology video could very well be on the way: Today (July 5), an old video of Ballinger resurfaced. It was filmed at a live performance and it shows her singing Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” on stage, all while wearing dark makeup that looks like blackface.

It’s not clear when exactly the video was filmed, but it was originally uploaded onto the Miranda Sings YouTube channel on February 22, 2018. The video is currently unlisted on the platform, meaning it doesn’t show up on the channel and won’t be shown in search results, but as of this post, it can still be watched here. Based on the full video alone, any potential additional context about the makeup Ballinger had on her face is unclear.

This comes after Ballinger apologized in 2020 for a different video, in which she impersonated Latin women in a video from 14 years earlier. She said in her apology video, “It is not funny, and it is completely hurtful. I am so ashamed and embarrassed that I ever thought this was okay. 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.”