Avril Lavigne defends Hello Kitty music video against accusations of racism: ‘I spend half my time in Japan’

Canadian pop star Avril Lavigne is laughing off the suggestion that her latest music video, for Hello Kitty, is racist.

“RACIST??? LOLOLOL!!!” Lavigne wrote on Twitter on Thursday after a raft of critics slammed the video following its Tuesday release. “I love Japanese culture and I spend half of my time in Japan.”

Lavigne goes on to clarify that she flew to Tokyo to shoot the video, which she says she made “specifically for my Japanese fans, WITH my Japanese label, Japanese choreographers AND a Japanese director IN Japan.

RACIST??? LOLOLOL!!! I love Japanese culture and I spend half of my time in Japan. I flew to Tokyo to shoot this video…

…specifically for my Japanese fans, WITH my Japanese label, Japanese choreographers AND a Japanese director IN Japan.

said her....

The 29-year-old singer then posted a link to the music video, which was re-posted on YouTube on Wednesday night after being removed shortly after its posting on Tuesday.

The music video for Hello Kitty, Lavigne’s third single from her 2013 self-titled album, was widely panned earlier this week, with critics scrutinizing the clip for its awkward cultural appropriation.