Camila Cabello Addresses Backlash After Her Dancer Is Accused of Blackface

Andrew Lipovsky/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Camila Cabello is defending one of her backup dancers after the performer was accused of wearing blackface while appearing on The Tonight Show.

The 24-year-old singer addressed the criticism on Twitter Sunday after critics took issue with the heavy stage makeup worn by dancer Dylan Pearce while performing Cabello's new single "Don't Go Yet," likening the look to blackface.

"Camila what was going on with Dylan's makeup?...having a dancer do blackface on stage in 2021 is absurd and you know better than that! say something immediately," one Twitter user wrote.

Cabello issued a statement shortly after receiving backlash for Pearce's look.

"So this dude was just supposed to be a white man with a terrible spray tan," Cabello wrote. "We purposefully tried to pull together a multicultural group of performers, the expectation was not that everyone in the performance needed to be Latin. There are white people, African American people, latin people, etc. and so the point wasn't to try to make everyone look Latin either. There are a lot of people in the performance who are not."

Cabello also shared a shot of Pearce from the Tonight Show, showing the dancer in an unbuttoned magenta shirt, khaki slacks and white sneakers. He was also styled with a mullet and gold chain necklace.

"The point was to try to make each person look like an over-the-top 80's character just like in the video, including a white dude with a terrible orange spray tan, " she added.

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

RELATED: Camila Cabello Celebrates Her Body and Shuts Down Haters After Going for a Run: 'We Are Real Women'

Pearce also shared the same photo, writing, "In case you missed my spray tan last night on @jimmyfallon with @camilla_cabello."

A rep for Cabello did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

Camila Cabello Twitter

In the official music video for "Don't Go Yet," which dropped Friday, Cabello embraces her Cuban-Mexican heritage in several scenes centered around a family gathering as she shows off her dance moves.

"Baby, don't go yet, 'cause I wore this dress for a lil' drama / And I bet, I bet that you think that you know, but you don't / Baby, come to mama," she sings. "I get, I get what I want when I want / And I get it how I wanna, wanna / And I want you baby, gotta get you, baby."

In conversation with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, the artist said that her hope for the single — and her upcoming album Familia —is to "manifest collective joy."

"I want it to be that kind of family affair selfishly because it would make me happy. It would make my life better and that's what I want, so that's really what I was trying to manifest with this whole album," she explained.

RELATED: Shawn Mendes Says Girlfriend Camila Cabello Made Him Sing 'Every Word Perfectly' in New Spanish Song

Cabello continued, "I think 'Don't Go Yet' is just sonically and melodically just me being free. I think being in Miami for so long and having more family around me and speaking Spanish more just kind of brought me back. I think my roots went deeper in a way that I really needed."

"Don't Go Yet" is Cabello's first release since her 2019 album, Romance. A release date for Familia has not yet been announced.