Sunday, the artist J Balvin apologized for the “Perra” music video, in which he was seen dragging at two black ladies on leashes while singing.
The video for Tokischa’s “Perra,” which was directed by Raymi Paulus, was pulled down from YouTube on Oct. 17, according to Billboard. This isn’t the first time Balvin and Tokischa have been photographed in the same place at the same time.
He apologized in a series of Instagram posts: “I want to express sorry to anybody felt insulted, especially to the Black women community,” José Alvaro Osorio Balvin said.
It didn’t stop there for the Colombian star: “In reality, I’m not like that at all. I’ve always been tolerant, loving, and welcoming to everyone.
Additionally, I want to support up-and-coming artists, such as Tokischa, a woman who is committed to her people, her neighborhood, and the advancement of other women in her field.
Balvin explained that he took down the video “out of respect” and apologized for the backlash it had received.
Requests for comment sent to Balvin, Tokischa, and Paulus on Monday went unanswered.
For Tokischa, the video was “conceptual,” as he explained in an interview with Rolling Stone, and it was supposed to underline the song’s wordplay.
“”If you’re a creator and you have a song about dogs, you’re going to create that universe,” she asserts. “I understand the misunderstanding and apologize profusely to anyone I may have offended. Art, on the other hand, is a form of self-expression. As a result, we’re constructing a new planet.”
On the contrary, Paulus said in an interview with Rolling Stone that the film “was never meant at promoting racism or misogyny.”
“The Dominican Republic is a country where the majority of the population is Black, and our Blackness is prominent in underground settings, where the filming took place, and which was the subject of the video’s inspiration,” he continued.
Perra was a video shot in the neighborhood, with locals, and the inclusion of people of color in it was nothing more than their involvement in it.”
Also read: French Oscars & Leadership Resigns Amid Roman Polanski Controversy
Sexist, racist, machismo, and misogynistic, according to Colombian Vice President Marta Luca Ramrez in an open letter published Oct. 11.
For the fourth time in a row, Balvin’s album “José,” which included “Perra,” topped the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart.