Pharrell Williams was supposed to appear on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” with Kim Burrell, but after a viral video captured her vitriolic rant against homosexuality, Burrell was cut from the show.
Pharrell still went on the show, though, and while his appearance was a delight, there was no way he and Ellen wouldn’t have to address Burrell’s absence.
–-Kim Burrell’s radio show gets plug pulled amid controversy–
“We have to talk about this before we go. You were supposed to do a different song, and you were supposed to perform it with a singer that, I actually didn’t know her; her name is Kim Burrell,” DeGeneres said.
“And she made a statement. She was doing a Facebook Live, and she said some very not nice things about homosexuals, so I didn’t feel like that was good of me to have her on the show to give her a platform after she’s saying things about me.”
Pharell then responded by saying, “Well, there’s no space, there’s no room for any kind of prejudice in 2017 and moving on. Like, there’s no room. I… she’s a fantastic singer, and I love her, just like I love everybody else, and we all got to get used to that. We all have to get used to everyone’s differences and understand that this is a big, gigantic, beautiful, colorful world, and it only works with inclusion and empathy. It only works that way.”