Colleen Ballinger Defends Herself Against Child Grooming Accusations With a Ukulele Song

Colleen Ballinger, YouTube star and creator behind comedy persona Miranda Sings, took to YouTube on Wednesday (June 28) to share a long-awaited video in response to accusations from fans that she engaged in toxic, inappropriate parasocial relationships with underage fans and groomed them.

However, the 10-minute video was a bit unusual in comparison to other celebrity statements after a controversy, as she chose to express her thoughts with a 10-minute song performed on ukulele.

“A lot of people are saying some things about me that aren’t quite true. Doesn’t matter if it’s true, though, just as long as it’s entertaining to you, right?” the 36-year-old content creator sang in the clip posted to her Colleen Vlogs channel. “You guys having fun? All aboard the toxic gossip train, chugging down the tracks of misinformation. The toxic gossip train.”

Throughout the video, Ballinger did admit to having “weird” relationships with her fans earlier in her career but “for what it’s worth, I never had any bad intentions but I do feel like s—.”

Allegations surrounding Ballinger’s behavior with her fans first began in 2020, when YouTuber Adam McIntyre made a video claiming that the comedian had a personal friendship with him while he was just a teenager and she was in her 30s, adding that at one point, she sent him lingerie as a joke. At the time, Ballinger responded to some of his allegations in a video.

However, the allegations resurfaced just a few weeks ago when another YouTuber, KodeeRants, who defended Ballinger against McIntyre in 2020, alleged that Ballinger privately shared screenshots of messages with McIntyre in a fan group chat. She also showed screenshots in her now-deleted video, in which Ballinger asked the group of fans their “favorite position,” among other inappropriate questions.

Ballinger did not address KodeeRants’ claims in her response song, which you can watch below.

Rania Aniftos

Billboard