K-pop group Mamamoo on Saturday issued a public apology for its parody video in which the members dressed up as African-Americans, saying that they did not understand the meaning of blackface.

“There is no excuse for what we did and there are not enough words to explain how regretful we are. We are heartbroken to have hurt our international K-Pop fans so deeply...We were extremely ignorant of blackface and did not understand the implications of our actions,” the group said in a public statement released on its official Facebook page.

The four-member group on Friday had released a parody music video of Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk,” featuring Bruno Mars, during its concert held at the Seoul Olympic Stadium. In it, the members painted their faces black in an attempt to resemble the aforementioned artists.

This sparked outrage over the group being insensitive to what is regarded as an offensive act. “Blackface,” a form of theatrical makeup to represent a black person, was widely used in performances such as minstrel shows in the early and mid-19th century to depict black people.

Mamamoo has vowed to edit out the controversial clip in the following performances.


By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)