Considered Racist, 2022 World Cup Song Singer Myriam Fares Removes Black Face From Goumi Music Video

Myriam Fares (Instagram @myriamfares)

JAKARTA - Singer of the 2022 World Cup song, Myriam Fares edited footage from a music video showing herself with a black face.

The music video for Goumi (2018) has now been updated on YouTube after receiving criticism.

"We are now acutely aware of the attack that escaped our judgment when we released the music video because it was never intentional," the Myriam team said via Rolling Stone.

"When Myriam crossed over to become an international artist, we recognized that this might be offensive," the statement continued.

"It's not our intention to raise any sensitive issues, as we really don't mean to offend, we just want to portray the beauty of women from a different culture."

According to Myriam's management, there have been several attempts to re-edit the music video beforehand.

However, the request was rejected by YouTube because the platform did not consider the request a "legitimate reason".

While the Myriam team could easily delete videos and upload newly edited footage, this meant that the track would lose its accumulated view count.

Finally, a deal was struck with YouTube, meaning problematic imagery can be removed from the original upload.

Nearly a minute and a half of the video has been removed, and now only shows Myriam, in her natural skin tone, performing the same choreography.

Goumi sparked controversy after its official release where many Arabic language media and fans criticized the Lebanese singer.

“It is unacceptable for non-black Arabs to paint their skin the color black or culturally appropriate for Black people,” wrote Mille World in 2018.

“Certainly not while racism was rampant in most countries, and certainly not while the Arabic word for 'slave' was still used interchangeably with 'black'.”

Meanwhile, at the 2022 World Cup event in Qatar recently, Myriam took part in the song Tukoh Taka with US rapper Nicki Minaj and Colombian singer Maluma. This is the first World Cup song to feature Arabic, English, and Spanish lyrics.