Lady Gaga Apologizes Over “Defiant” and “Provocative” Hit Single “Do What U Want (With My Body)” Featuring R. Kelly After More Sex Scandals
NEW YORK, NY – Lady Gaga wants to pull one of her songs off Apple’s iTunes and other streaming services over embattled music star R. Kelly’s alleged sexual misconduct allegations.
The 32-year-old singer apologized on Twitter Thursday over her collaborative hit with Kelly, “Do What U Want (With My Body),” claiming she created the song during a “dark time” and wanted “something extremely defiant and provocative.”
“I’m sorry, both for my poor judgment when I was young, and for not speaking out sooner,” Gaga wrote.
I stand by anyone who has ever been the victim of sexual assault: pic.twitter.com/67sz4WpV3i
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) January 10, 2019
The move comes in light of Kelly’s alleged involvement with pedophilia and a sex cult revealed in the docu-series, “Surviving R. Kelly,” which aired Jan. 4 on Lifetime.
Several people on Twitter previously called out Gaga for not addressing her duet with Kelly.
Something that still baffles me is why Lady Gaga did that duet with R Kelly in 2013…especially since the song had lyrics like “Do what you want, what you want with my body.”
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) January 4, 2019
And then she had Terry Richardson of all people direct the music video (which was never released)
Remember when Lady Gaga helped revive R Kelly’s career a few years ago doing duets with him, long after everyone already knew what an abusive monster he is?
— Mark Dice (@MarkDice) January 7, 2019
Lady Gaga is such an evil creature. Why is she at the #GoldenGlobes? The witch should be shunned.
In 2013 we knew the kind of person that R. Kelly is. That same year Lady GaGa chose to collaborate with him AND brushed aside the allegations made against him by countless women! https://t.co/pFAcAJ35PP
— Perez (@ThePerezHilton) January 7, 2019
“Do What U Want” was on Billboard’s Hot 100 list for 19 weeks and peaked at #13 on Nov. 9, 2013.
Gaga has been outspoken about being sexually assaulted at 19. She also released “Til It Happens To You” in 2015 about rape on college campuses. The singer refers to the song in her statement about Kelly as well.
Kelly’s music was removed from Spotify’s curated playlists as part of a policy on “hateful content” in May 2018. His songs and albums remain on the site, however.
Apple and Spotify did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.