It feels like an eternity since Ariana Grande released “7 Rings” because there hasn’t been a shortage of things to call her out for. From the get-go, her followers have criticized her for cultural appropriation—specifically, ripping off women of color and using the Japanese language to promote her song when there was really no connection in the first place. Now, Ari is sick of hearing all the (fair) criticisms and finally responded, then deleted, what she truly thinks of the whole situation.
Over the weekend, Ariana brought up her misspelled “7 Rings” tattoo, which actually says “Japanese BBQ finger.” In response to someone who told her she should apologize for using the language purely for aesthetics, she tweeted, “I can’t read or write kanji obviously. What do you want me to do? It was done out of love and appreciation. What do you want me to say?”
She also wants people to cut her some slack because she’s apparently not like the people who “make this mistake and don’t care just cause they like how it looks.” She also made the point that she has removed all her merch that has Japanese writing on it.
Ariana wrapped up this thread with a note about her anxiety and how “people on this app really don’t know how to be forgiving or gentle when someone has made an innocent mistake,” which must be hard to deal with.
All that said, Ariana still hasn’t really apologized, and while some fans think her response was good enough, others are not here for these tweets.