After a dance segment featuring Addison Rae on The Tonight Show caused a social media backlash, host Jimmy Fallon addressed the controversy Monday night and took pains to properly credit some of the TikTok creators behind the dances.
“On our last show before break, we did a bit with Addison Rae, where she taught me eight viral TikTok dances,” Fallon said, introducing the interviews. “Now, we recognize the creators of those dances deserve to have their own spotlight, so right now, some of the creators will join me to talk about how their dance went viral, and then perform the dance themselves.”
Fallon then spoke to Mya Nicole Johnson and Chris Cotter, who are behind the viral “Up” dance; Dorien Scott, the creator of “Corvette Corvette”; Fly Boy Fu, who made the “Laffy Taffy” remix, and Indii, who created the dance; Adam Snyder, Nate Nale and Greg Dahl, who are behind the “Blinding Lights” dance; and Keara Wilson, who created the “Savage” dance.
Following the segment on the March 26 episode, Fallon and Rae were widely criticized on social media for failing to acknowledge the predominately Black creators of the dances that Rae performed. The controversy fed into wider issues of white Instagram and TikTok stars going viral for creative ideas dreamed up by smaller POC accounts, as well as issues of cultural appropriation.
Rae addressed the issue in an interview with TMZ. “I think they were all credited in the original YouTube posting, but it’s kinda hard to credit during the show,” she said. “But they all know that I love them so much and I mean, I support all of them so much. And hopefully one day we can all meet up and dance together.”
She added: “They deserve all the credit because they came up with these amazing trends.”
See the video below.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
