A humorous “Tonight Show” sketch isn’t sitting well with singer India.Arie.
The singer-songwriter took issue with Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake’s Super Bowl skit which saw them having a conversation and singing about food and recreation-related dialogue intermittently. The clip was titled “Songversation,” and that’s what ticked off the “High Above” singer.
https://twitter.com/indiaarie/status/960484880651038720
“THIS not what I have cultivated this word for,” she added in a follow-up tweet Wednesday, Feb. 7. “Nope.”
After stating that scrolling through the #songversation made her “nauseous,” she added that “#songversation was not created as a place for @jimmyfallon to make jokes.”
“I demand that my life’s work be RESPECTED — do not TOY with #Songversation,” she tweeted directly at Fallon.
Fallon, “The Tonight Show,” nor Timberlake have responded to Arie.
And one fan took up for the late-night host, leading the singer to hit reply.
“No tea, no shade but I doubt Jimmy Fallon woke up and was like ‘Imma rip @indiaarie off today, mimosas anyone?’… I could see more than one person coming up with the name ‘Songversation’ especially in context to Jimmy’s game being about singing a conversation. It makes sense.”
https://twitter.com/indiaarie/status/961011472980676614
https://twitter.com/indiaarie/status/961011687703961600
“Thank you for your cool tone,” she added after noting in another tweet that “I’m certain that I brought this word the consciousness. I don’t think its @jimmyfallon himself. It’s his writers.”
And she has lots of fans in her corner.
“Unacceptable,” one tweeted. “Apologies are in order. Her works are healing art for the world.”
“@jimmyfallon @jtimberlake🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️my favorite artist in the whole wide world woke up feeling disrespected this morning…#Songversation is a movement of light, love and realness…turning it into a bunch of badly sung jokes is just 🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️.”
Arie tweeted about the importance of the phrase “songversation” in her work, noting she has two albums named after it: 2013’s “Songversation” and the 2017 EP, “SongVersation: Medicine.”
The singer also noted that her performances have been tied to the name for eight years.
https://twitter.com/indiaarie/status/960502846033678336
Arie further explained the sacredness of the phrase on OWN’s “SuperSoul Sessions.”
“Songversation is not a concert,” she said. “It’s not a lecture. It’s not a performance, even. This is a songversation. And a songversation is a practice that is part meditation, part prayer, part fellowship and part action.”
