YouTuber Colleen Ballinger’s Apology Video Divides the Internet

After being dogged with grooming allegations, Miranda Sings creator Colleen Ballinger responds with no ordinary apology video–– it’s a song. Releasing a song as a response was certainly a divisive choice, and promptly spawned dozens of memes.

Ballinger posted the video on Wednesday to her YouTube channel, Colleen Vlogs. On there, she denied the so-called lies and gossip surrounding her whilst strumming a ukulele.

Find out more about the scandal and the hilarious memes that people made.

Colleen went against the better judgment of her team and decided to respond to the allegations in a way that was in character for the YouTube personality. She started off the 10-minute video by saying, “Some people are saying things about me that just aren’t true.”

She continued, “Even though my team has strongly advised me not to say what I’m going to say, I realized they never said I couldn’t sing about what I want to say.”

“I used to message my fans — but not in a creepy way, like a lot of you are trying to suggest.” She explained, “It was more of a loser kind of way. I was just trying to be besties with everybody.”

Ballinger went on to admit that “There were times in DMs when I would overshare” but said that she ultimately “Changed my behavior and took accountability.”

Then she started to strum her ukulele and sing. She started with lyrics that said: “Thought you wanted me to take accountability / but that’s not the point of your mob mentality / your goal is to ruin the life of the person you despise / while you dramatize your lies and monetize their demise.”

She addressed the hate campaign going around on social media trying to slander her name numerous times throughout the song, referring to it as a “toxic gossip train.”

In the song, she addressed the haters, “I’m sure you’re disappointed in my shitty little song / I know you wanted me to say that I was 100% in the wrong / well I’m sorry I’m not gonna take that route / of admitting to lies and rumors that you made up for clout.”

“The only thing I’ve ever groomed is my two Persian cats / I’m not a groomer, just a loser / who didn’t understand I shouldn’t respond to fans / and I’m not a predator even a lot of you think so / because five years ago I made a fart joke,” Ballinger denied allegations.

Allegations against Colleen were first reported by NBC News in 2020, in which YouTuber Adam McIntyre made a video alleging that Ballinger “formed an inappropriate personal friendship with him while he was between the ages of 13 and 16.”