Hayley Kiyoko SLAMS Rita Ora Song "Girls" For Harmful Lyrics Toward LGBTQ Community

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Even though Rita Ora’s latest song featured the likes of Cardi B, Charli XCX, and Bebe Rexha, the response it’s gotten has been less than stellar.
Some of Rita’s peers are even calling the lyrics super harmful.
It didn’t take long after the release of Rita’s new song, “Girls,” for the backlash to commence. From a first listen, “Girls” obviously sounded like a bop with its upbeat tempo and repetitive but catchy chorus. Not to mention it was also a song everyone was looking forward to because of the artists featured on the track. However, as fans began to pay more attention to the lyrics, “Girls” went from summer bop to summer NOT.
In fact, shortly after the song was released, Hayley Kiyoko hopped on Twitter to give her two cents on the matter and even went as far as to call the track harmful.
Hayley wrote in her lengthy statement QUOTE, “It’s important for us artists to use our platforms to move the cultural needle forward, not backwards. There is a new song that came out today featuring a handful of well-known pop artists that has me overwhelmed with thoughts. I literally have a knot in my stomach right now. To be clear, I fully support other artists who freely express themselves and applaud male and female artists who are opening up more and more about their sexual identities.
But every so often there are certain songs with messaging that is just downright tone-deaf, which does more harm than good for the LGBTQ+ community. A song like this just fuels the male gaze while marginalizing the idea of women loving women.
I know this wasn’t the intention of the artists on the song, but it’s the lack of consideration behind these lyrics that really get me. I don’t need to drink wine to kiss girls; I’ve loved women my entire life. This type of message is dangerous because it completely belittles and invalidates the very pure feelings of the entire community. I feel I have a responsibility to protect that whenever possible. We can and should do better.”
Hayley wasn’t the only artist who found an issue with the song. Even Kehlani took to Twitter to express her feelings towards “Girls” and its lyrics.
She tweeted QUOTE, “Hate to be THAT guy but there were many awkward slurs, quotes, and moments that were like, ‘Word? Word.’ And don’t make this personal. I have an incredible song out with one of the artists and would love to work with the other three as well. And have met them all and respect them. There. Were. Harmful. Lyrics. Period. Love y’all.”
As all of those concerns were expressed over the weekend, Rita finally responded to the backlash with her own message early Monday morning.
Rita tweeted QUOTE, “Hello everyone reading this. Girls was written to represent my truth and is an accurate account of a very real and honest experience in my life. I have had romantic relationships with women and men throughout my life and this is my personal journey.
I am sorry how I expressed myself in my song has hurt anyone. I would never intentionally cause harm to other LGBTQ+ people or anyone. Looking forward, I hope that continuing to express myself through my art will empower my fans to feel as proud of themselves as I’m learning to feel about who I am. I’m ever thankful to my fans for teaching me to love myself no matter what. I have strived to be a contributor to the LGBTQ+ community throughout my career and always will be.”
PROMO: Wow. So what did you guys think of all of the backlash Rita’s song “Girls” has been receiving? Do you agree with Hayley and that the song is harmful or do you think it’s harmless? Leave all your thoughts in the comment section below. When you’re done with that, click right over here to get all the deets on Bella Hadid and The Weeknd’s sneaky smooch in Cannes. Thanks so much for hanging with me on Clevver Newsfeed, I’m your girl Drew Dorsey, don’t forget to hit that subscribe button and I’ll see you all next time!
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