Ariana Grande has apologised for her response to an Instagram post about her new single ‘7 Rings’, after being accused of flippantly replying to a genuine critique of the track.
It all started when one Instagram user referenced one of the song’s lyrics (“You like my hair? Gee, just bought it”) on their story, writing: “White women talking about their weaves is how we’re gonna solve racism.”
It’s unclear whether the person in question was being sarcastic, but it was then spotted by Ariana, who clearly thought her intentions were genuine, as she then shared it on her own story, saying she said she had “so much love” for the comment.
However – and this is where things start to get a little complicated – some people felt that Ariana had totally misread a serious critique of her song.
Ariana later deleted her story post, but not before it was spotted by the gossip site The Shade Room, who shared it on their Instagram page.
With the post now permanently saved, and fans speculating over why it was deleted, Ariana clarified her intentions in The Shade Room’s comment section.
“I think her [the original user’s] intention was to be like… yay a white person disassociating the negative stereotype that is paired with the word ‘weave’,” she wrote. “However I’m so sorry if my response was out of pocket or if it came across the wrong way.
“Thanks for opening the conversation and like… to everyone for talking to me about it. It’s never my intention to offend anybody.” [sic]
While ‘7 Rings’ was well-received by fans, breaking Spotify streaming records in its first 24 hours, not everyone is impressed with its success, and the singer has also been accused of plagiarism by multiple people.
Sharing two short clips on social media, Princess Nokia has claimed the song “riffs” off her 2017 song ‘Mine’, while Soulja Boy claims ‘7 Rings’ bears more than a few similarities to his track ’ ‘Pretty Boy Swag’.
Ariana is yet to address these claims.
‘7 Rings’ is the second single to be lifted from Ariana’s upcoming fifth studio album, set for release next month, and follows the chart-topping success of her track ‘Thank U, Next’.
