Colleen Ballinger responds to ‘Single Ladies’ controversy: That was not blackface, she says

Beleaguered YouTuber Colleen Ballinger stood onstage in a black leotard, granny panties and smeared facepaint. But was that paint green or black? Did she fail to wipe her face after a “Wicked” skit, or was she doing a blackface performance mocking Beyoncé?

A video resurfaced this week showing Ballinger performing at a live show as her popular character, Miranda Sings, with a dark substance on her face, prompting complaints of racism.

Through her attorney, Andrew Brettler, who contacted The Times on Thursday, Ballinger said the substance on her face was green makeup. Prior to the “Single Ladies” parody, she had performed a song from the musical “Wicked,” dressed as Elphaba, a witch with green skin, Brettler wrote in an emailed statement.

“What you don’t see in the clip that was posted online is that Colleen was performing a song from ‘Wicked’ with Oliver Tompsett, a star from the show,” the statement read. “She painted her face green like the witch. After that number, she went right into ‘Single Ladies’ (while still wearing the green makeup).”

The Times reviewed video provided by Brettler that shows Ballinger and Tompsett, a British actor who was in the original “Wicked” cast in London’s West End. The pair sing the duet “As Long As You’re Mine,” between Elphaba and Fiyero, Tompsett’s character.

After the duet, the video shows Ballinger changing into her black leotard before launching into the “Single Ladies” performance, still with the apparent green paint on her face. The latter half of the video, which spurred the recent controversy, remains on her Miranda Sings YouTube channel. Brettler said Ballinger ended each show on that tour with the Beyoncé parody.

While accusations of blackface and racism swirled online, several users on Twitter had suggested Ballinger’s face paint was actually green from the earlier “Wicked” performance.

Yet several separate videos of Ballinger have widely circulated online in recent days in which she mocks Asian, Latino and Native American people in other parody videos. The videos have drawn backlash from fans and critics who remain concerned about alleged racism from the performer.

Brettler did not immediately respond to The Times’ requests for comment on the separate claims of racism.

The videos add to a growing list of allegations against the “Haters Back Off” actor, including accusations of “grooming” her minor fans for labor, allegedly making sexual jokes with minors in a group chat and other inappropriate behavior with fans.

After weeks of silence, Ballinger responded last week with a song in which she played a ukulele and dismissed the claims as “toxic gossip.” The video was met with a wave of criticism that her video came off as insensitive, poking fun at critics’ grievances.

Ballinger is currently on tour as Miranda Sings, performing live shows at venues throughout the U.S.

Since she started posting videos of her Miranda Sings character in 2009, Ballinger has tapped the hate she’s received online and channeled it into her over-the-top diva persona. She crafted Miranda as an egotistical satire of an internet personality who sings badly and has poor comic taste.

Ballinger’s fan base grew over the next five years, through her videos and live performances on tour. Her career hit a high point in 2016 when Netflix allowed her to develop a two-season series, “Haters Back Off,” based on her Miranda character.