Trending Topics

India.Arie ‘Offended’ by Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake Skit

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.

“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 β€” 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.”

“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 @jtimberlakeπŸ€¦πŸ½β€β™€οΈπŸ€¦πŸ½β€β™€οΈπŸ€¦πŸ½β€β™€οΈπŸ€¦πŸ½β€β™€οΈ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 πŸ€¦πŸ½β€β™€οΈπŸ€¦πŸ½β€β™€οΈ.”

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.

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.”

Back to top