Update: Footage obtained by TMZ provides context for the 2009 video of Colleen Ballinger singing Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” while wearing what looked like blackface. Actually, Ballinger was wearing green makeup on her face: Immediately before “Single Ladies,” Ballinger sang a song with Oliver Tompsett, star of the Wicked musical. So, the green makeup was an attempt to look like the Wicked Witch of the West, and she didn’t remove it before the Beyoncé cover.
The original post follows below.
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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.
https://twitter.com/PaigeChristieUK/status/1676582338719805441
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.”
