
BBC's latest episode of Let’s Sing & Dance For Comic Relief is at the centre of a new controversy.
The show, which is presented by Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins (of the Bake Off ilk) sees them performing shortened versions of songs for charity.
The latest episode had presenters from The One Show, including Dominic Littlewood dress in PVC and drag, performing Lady Gaga’s hit song Born This Way.
However they cut out a key line from the song – which celebrated a diverse range of sexualities:
No matter gay, straight, or bi, lesbian, transgendered life.
People didn't like that.
When @BBC cut out LGBT lyrics from born this way #LetsSingAndDance https://t.co/ZYsEwf2THE— ☀️the sunshine lady☀️ (@☀️the sunshine lady☀️) 1489864731
So #LetsSingAndDance just took the whole point of born this way OUT OF BORN THIS WAY. They missed out— ☀️the sunshine lady☀️ (@☀️the sunshine lady☀️) 1489864166
Dear @BBC the lyrics are “No matter gay, straight, or bi/Lesbian, transgendered life” Stop removing them!! @ladygaga https://t.co/jNlYdRYElf— Norwich Pride 🌈 (@Norwich Pride 🌈) 1489921266
This isn't the first time the BBC edited out the LGBT lyrics of Lady Gaga's Born This Way:
Gary Barlow’s performance last month on BBC’s Let It Shine also came under fire for omitting the same lyrics. At the time they released a statement in its defense:
Therefore, typically sections came out of all of the songs performed for the show. In this case, to get a dance break in, we did what we often do which was to repeat the first chorus as opposed to putting in the second one, especially as in this version of the song we had a slow version of the first chorus.
It made sense therefore musically in an edit, to go with a repeated chorus with a faster tempo the second time around.
What's with the missing out of the Lesbian, gay, bi and trans verse in born this way? that's twice now unacceptable @BBC #LetsSingAndDance— Michelle Townsend (@Michelle Townsend) 1489866945
On this second faux pas, BBC told Ok! :
It is standard procedure to edit down music tracks to fit into the running time of the show."
Here's the video:
indy100 has reached out to BBC for comment.
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