Billie Eilish issued a lengthy apology Monday after old videos of her seemingly mocking Asian and Black accents resurfaced earlier this month.
Taking to her Instagram story, the singer thanked her followers for holding her accountable for her past problematic behavior.
"Many of you have been asking me to address this. This is something I want to address because I’m being labeled something that I am not," wrote Eilish, referencing a video in which she is seen lip-syncing to a song that uses an Asian slur in the lyrics.
"There’s a video edit going around of me when I was 13 or 14 where I mouthed a word from a song that at the time I didn’t know was a derogatory term used against members of the Asian community," the Grammy winner explained. "I am appalled and embarrassed…that I ever mouthed along to that word."
Eilish added that song was her first exposure to the word "as it was never used around me by anyone in my family," but agreed she should have known better.
"Nothing excuses the fact is that it was hurtful. And for that I am sorry," she wrote.
She then referenced another video where she is accused of using a Black accent. She insisted that she was, instead, speaking in a "silly gibberish made-up voice."
"It is in no way an imitation of anyone or any language, accent, or culture in the slightest," she explained. "It absolutely breaks my heart that it is being labeled now in a way that might cause pain to people hearing it."
Eilish added that the videos go against her platform, which is built on "inclusion, kindness, tolerance, equity and equality." She closed out her apology by encouraging her followers to "continue having conversations, listening and learning."
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