The Colleen Ballinger allegations and ukulele apology song, explained

Colleen Balinger, popular YouTuber known as Miranda Sings and comedian, stunned fans by posting a video on Wednesday. This video came out amid allegations of the creator using her fame to engage in toxic, exploitative and hurtful interaction with fans. Reports from Rolling Stone, among others, described this. Ballinger, instead of making a typical apology video, took out her ukulele to perform an original song in which she defended herself.

Ballinger began the video with a spoken introduction: “Hey everyone. I’ve been wanting to come online and talk to you about a few things. Even though my team has strongly advised me to not say what I want to say, I recently realized they never said that I couldn’t sing what I wanted to say.”

While apology videos are a dime a dozen in a culture where creators with online fandoms have often been accused of abuse, this one stood out — if not only for the haphazard dismissal of serious allegations and the stated disregard of her own team’s apparent advice, but for just how cringe-inducing it is to address these allegations through a corny song. The video captured the attention of the wider internet beyond Ballinger’s own fan base, and it inspired both longtime fans of hers and skeptical viewers alike to go to social media to drag the video. Over 3 million people viewed the video in just one day.

In the end, the video propelled the controversy to new levels of notoriety, but there’s a lot behind Ballinger’s response to the allegations and the larger controversy itself. So no matter what level of familiarity you have with Ballinger and her character Miranda Sings, we’re here to explain everything behind the controversy that’s animated the internet.

Miranda Sings is a character created by Colleen B. Ballinger.

Colleen Ballinger is an American actor and comedian who got her start from — and is perhaps most known for — her YouTube channel Miranda Sings. She portrays a character called Miranda Sings in her YouTube videos. It is a satirical depiction of young women hoping to use YouTube as a way to gain fame. Along with various bits based on the character where she leans into irreverent humor and tells plenty of fart jokes, she’s also known for singing off-key covers of songs.

Photo: Steve Granitz/FilmMagic

Ballinger’s channel really took off throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s. Her Miranda Sings and vlog channels had collectively over 13,000,000 subscribers at the time of this publication. Some videos received as much as 56,000,000 views. As time went on, Miranda’s fame and popularity grew beyond YouTube. She was on Nickelodeon’s show VictoriousThe New York Times bestselling novel titled Selp-Helf. She went on to portray Miranda Sings, a character in the Netflix series called Reject the HatersThis two-season series began in 2016

Ballinger’s sphere of influence is undoubtedly wide, but she is likely more of a well-known name among the younger millennial and Gen Z generations due to her ties to the early days of YouTube and her more recent work on TikTok.

What is the Colleen ballinger accusation?

Adam McIntyre first made allegations against Colleen Ballinger in April 2020 when he posted a video. In the clip, he claimed that Ballinger took advantage of his stardom and got him to do work for her free. After releasing the video, McIntyre said Ballinger’s fans harassed and doxxed him for speaking up. There weren’t many further developments until two weeks ago. At that point, another member of Ballinger’s fandom who goes by KodeeRants posted a now-deleted video that confirmed the existence of a group chat named “Colleeny’s Weenies” where inappropriate messages were allegedly exchanged between Ballinger and a small group of her fans. After KodeeRants’ video, several fans came forward on social media to share their experiences with Ballinger and her inner circle. These accounts didn’t just allege misconduct on Colleen Ballinger’s part but also contained stories about her best friend, Kory Desoto; her ex-husband, Joshua David Evans; and her brother, Trent Ballinger.

Adam McIntyre/YouTube

In a Rolling Stone report, published on the 21st of June, the latest wave was described and documented. The report says that Ballinger “has been accused of abusing her power and engaging in toxic parasocial relationships with fans,” and it goes on to detail specific accounts of misconduct. One reported example included a group chat with McIntyre wherein Ballinger apparently asked questions like “Are you a virgin?” and “What’s your fav position?” The report also described a fan named Johnny Silvestri, who became an assistant on tour; Silvestri told Rolling Stone that Ballinger and Desoto created a toxic work environment that “thrived on parasocial and intensely one-sided relationships between Ballinger and fans.”

The report describes a dynamic in which young people trusted Ballinger and looked up to him. According to Rolling Stone they feel that their trust was betrayed. While some responses to the reporting have characterized the behavior as “grooming,” it’s important to note that the Rolling Stone article, which spoke to several fans, does not use this term, rather emphasizing a generally toxic environment that was reportedly prevalent throughout the fandom. One source told Rolling Stone that the current allegations “are not criminal” but instead speak more to the intense emotional sway that figures like Ballinger can have over young fans.

What evidence is there against Colleen B. Ballinger?

A report by Rolling Stone, published in the month of June, lays out and verifies most of the documented evidence. The report contains screenshots from conversations between Ballinger’s fans and Ballinger, which, according to those interviewed by Rolling Stone contain inappropriate sexual messages. These conversations unfolded in a Twitter group chat, as well as other direct message sources, shared between fans and Ballinger’s friends and family members. Rolling Stone reviewed screenshots of group chats, and this was confirmed by several sources.

What song is Colleen ballinger’s apology on the ukulele?

Ballinger’s initial response to this new round of accusations was to step away from social networks. However, on Wednesday, the creator responded to the allegations in a video on her vlog channel, titled “hi.” In that video, Ballinger addressed the controversy by singing and playing the ukulele. She appeared to deny the allegations as she sang: “A lot of people are saying some things about me that aren’t quite true. It doesn’t matter if it’s true, though, just as long as it’s entertaining.” The video includes some jaw-dropping moments, including when she says, “I just wanted to say that the only thing I’ve ever groomed is my two Persian cats. I’m not a groomer. Just a loser.”

The song inspired a whole wave of memesThere are also parodies where people mock the tone deafness and cringey nature the video. Even McIntyre himself responded with his own song, strumming a ukulele haphazardly and responding to Ballinger’s song line by line. And now, Ballinger’s decision to share the video appears to be baffling long-term fans as they share their feelings online.