Camila Cabello responds to blackface accusations in Don't Go Yet performance

26 July 2021, 14:04

Camila Cabello dancer accused of wearing blackface

By Sam Prance

Camila Cabello came under fire after one of her dancers was accused of wearing blackface in a Jimmy Fallon performance.

Camila Cabello has addressed accusations that one of her dancers was in blackface during the live debut of 'Don't Go Yet'.

Last week (Jul 23), Camila Cabello returned with a brand new single. 'Don't Go Yet' is the lead from Camila's upcoming third studio album Familia. To promote 'Don't Go Yet', Camila appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to perform it for the first time. Camila came under fire after one of her dancers was accused of wearing blackface in the performance.

In the video, one of Camila's white dancers, Dylan Pearce, wears a black wig and has a noticeably darker skin tone to what he actually looks like. He also posted an Instagram Story after the performance comparing himself to a Black female emoji. Now, Camila has responded to the backlash and denied that Dylan was wearing blackface.

READ MORE: Camila Cabello apologises for past racist language and Tumblr posts

Taking to Twitter, Camila wrote: "Hey! so this dude was just supposed to be a white man with a terrible spray tan. We purposefully tried to pull together a multicultural group of performers, the expectation was not that everyone in the performance needed to be Latin. There are white people, African American people, Latin people, etc. and so the point wasn’t to try to make everyone look Latin either. There are a lot of people in the performance who are not."

Camila then added: "The point was to try to make each person look like an over-the-top 80’s character just like in the video, including a white dude with a terrible orange spray tan." Camila also posted a screenshot of her dancer, Dylan Pearce's Instagram Story in which he shared a photo of himself in the tan posing backstage with the caption: "In case you missed my spray tan last night on @jimmyfallon with @camila_cabello."

Camila's statement has since been met with further backlash. One person wrote: "You’re very weird making an excuse to deflect from black people being offended and weirded out by your idea. I guess it’s a coincidence that you chose a racist to have the 'tan'," alongside a screenshot of Dylan comparing himself to a Black emoji.

Someone else then added: "Like y’all clearly didn’t achieve the vibe you wanted, and it never should have been attempted. I don’t personally love your ‘explanation’, but regardless of your intentions, people ARE offended by what you did. You need to apologize and do better."

And another person wrote: "Instead of trying to find an excuse for that man, you should at least apologize to the community you have offended. disappointed smh."

As it stands, neither Camila nor Dylan are yet to apologise. We shall update you if they do.