Lady Gaga’s collaboration with R. Kelly has been removed from streaming services.
The singer-actress is frontrunner for the Best Actress Oscar for her riveting performance in Bradley Cooper’s highly acclaimed A Star Is Born. She has been nominated for an acting Golden Globe, and won the Globe for Best Song (“Shallow”) in that picture.
The song, “Do What U Want (With My Body), was removed approximately 18 hours after Lady Gaga tweeted apology for working with Kelly.
Kelly has been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women, as featured in last week’s Lifetime documentary, Surviving R. Kelly.
Videos for the 2013 song have been removed from YouTube as well.
But the provocative American Music Awards performance that year, which referred to Marilyn Monroe’s alleged sexual relations with President John F. Kennedy remains, as that clip belongs to ABC, which broadcast the show, and not to Gaga’s label, Interscope Records.
“I stand behind these women 1000%, believe them, know they are suffering and in pain and feel strongly that their voices should be heard and taken seriously,” Gaga wrote. “What I am hearing about the allegations against R Kelly is absolutely horrifying and indefensible. As a victim of sexual assault myself, I made both the songs and video at a dark time in my life, my intention was to create something extremely defiant and provocative because I was angry and still hadn’t processed the trauma that had occurred in my own life.”