Home Q News Music News Lady Gaga’s R. Kelly collabo disappearing from iTunes, other streaming services

Lady Gaga’s R. Kelly collabo disappearing from iTunes, other streaming services

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Anthony Harvey/Getty ImagesLess than 24 hours after Lady Gaga announced she was pulling her 2013 R. Kelly collaboration “Do What U Want (With My Body)” from all streaming platforms, it looks like it’s happening.

The track from Gaga’s ARTPOP album is completely absent when the album’s track list is displayed in iTunes.  On Spotify, the song is listed but unplayable.  Additionally, the song’s been removed from Lady Gaga’s YouTube channel, as has as a video of Gaga performing the song live with R. Kelly on Saturday Night Live in 2013.

Gaga’s announcement Wednesday was prompted by the allegations of sexual and other abuse from numerous women featured in the Lifetime series Surviving R. Kelly.  In a lengthy tweet, Gaga begins by declaring: “I stand behind these women 1,000% …What I am hearing about the allegations against R. Kelly is absolutely horrifying and indefensible.” 

Gaga goes on to apologize for the collaboration and explain why she did it, writing in part, “I made both the song and video at a dark time in my life, my intention was to create something extremely defiant and provocative because I was angry and still hadn’t processed the trauma that had occurred in my own life.”  That statement’s in reference to Gaga’s own history as a survivor of sexual assault.

In related news, Billboard reports the women’s rights group UltraViolet plans to have a banner flown over the Sony Music offices in Los Angeles at 11:00 a.m. local time Friday, with the message “RCA/SONY: DROP SEXUAL PREDATOR R KELLY.”  UltraViolet has also sponsored an online petition to convince the label to drop Kelly.

Kelly has denied all allegations of sexual abuse.

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