MAMAMOO is currently under fire for using blackface in their rendition of Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk" for a concert. Fans of the girl group, particularly those who belong in the black community, took offense of the act and slammed the idols for being insensitive.
According to Allkpop, blackface is a kind of makeup used by performers to portray as a black person. For the concert video, the four-member K-Pop band wore dark cosmetics which did not please their international fans.
Amid criticisms, MAMAMOO's agency, RBW, released a statement on Saturday to address the issue. The label said they never intended to offend the African Americans, stating that the concert video was made to spoof a popular song.
"We apologize for releasing a controversial video and we will pay attention to even the smallest of details [from now on]," RBW posted as per Soompi.
The agency also promised to exclude to controversial video from the second round of MAMAOO's concert shows. On the same day, the girl group also released an apology to their fans for causing an issue.
"There is no excuse for what we did and there are not enough words to explain how regretful we are. We are heartbroken to have hurt our international K-pop fans so deeply," MAMAMOO posted on Facebook.
The girl group also expressed their love to all their fans regardless of their race, sexuality, religion and gender. MAMAMOO specifically felt sorry towards fans who belong in the black community.
Following the controversy, the band said they were able to reflect on their actions and admitted that they were "extremely ignorant of blackface." MAMAMOO promised to avoid the same thing from happening again in the future.
"We hope that you will help to educate us on these and other issues so that we can become better people and better artists," MAMAMOO asked their fans.
