Thousands of tweens and young women know Kiely Williams as an ex-3LW member turned kiddie-pandering Disney Cheetah Girl. But last week, many saw the music video for Kiely's single "Spectacular" and were shocked to watch the 23-year-old transform into a shot-slinging bar crawler engaging in a drunken one-night-stand. The lyrics—written by Kiely—included lines such as: "Last I remember I was face down/Ass up, clothes off, broke off, dozed off/Even though I’m not sure of his name/He could get it again if he wanted."
Though Kiely put out an official statement and video blog explaining that her intent was to bring awareness to the problems with females engaging in intoxicated promiscuity, many still feel she went too far. VIBE caught up with the young star to play devil's advocate. —Tracy Garraud
VIBE: Did you anticipate the backlash from ‘Spectacular’ or did you think people would immediately get your intent?
KIELY WILLIAMS: I absolutely did know we would get this feedback, but that was the purpose. The point of the song was to build awareness with what’s often going on in the lives of young women. I read online that a study was done in Great Britain that found that one in seven 16-to-24-year-old girls had unprotected sex after drinking lots of alcohol, and one in ten of them didn’t even remember they had sex the night before. People need to be honest about this.
Did you ever think about putting a note at the end of the video to drive that point home more directly?
No, because kids honestly wouldn’t have paid attention. I don’t think we would’ve been even having this conversation if I had said, ‘Hey, don’t have unprotected sex.’
But do you think your point would’ve been better made if the video ended with you looking upset and not happy?
Well the truth of the matter is, a lot of the girls don’t regret the situation. And that probably is the worst part. It wasn’t a PSA. I made the video to start a dialogue so that the woman who think this is all good can hear from the ones who are disgusted by it.
But with all the mutations of feminism over the years, we’ve reached a point where many believe sexual liberation to the most promiscuous level, is feminism. In that case, do you see how someone would see left of your intent?
I am a feminist and I do believe that there is a level of sexual liberation that women should enjoy, however irresponsible, unprotected sex is never right. It’s dangerous. I’ve never even had a one-night stand. The story was inspired from my friend.
I’m with celebrities having social responsibility, but do you care if this polarizes your younger fans?
To be completely honest if I wanted to make myself seem older I could’ve done what all the other ex-Disney kids do and release a sex tape or have some naked pictures of me mysteriously released.
I read a blog comment that said your video is just as bad as Adrienne’s naked photos…
I personally don’t see the correlation.
"I'm not gonna live the rest of my life with Mickey Mouse ears on"
What was your reaction to Adrienne's photo leak?
To be honest, it was heartbreaking that the Cheetah Girls had to be remembered with such a dark, tacky stain on our final tour, something that we had worked very, very hard for. And it was really upsetting to have to walk out in front of these young girls to say ‘Hey, she’s got naked pictures, oops, I don’t know how it happened,’ But I said goodbye to Disney over a year ago. The ship has sailed. I’m not gonna live the rest of my life with Mickey Mouse ears on.
Your manager mentioned that you have a 12-year-old protégé you’re working with. Has she seen the video?
No, she has not.
Should she not see it?
Look, I have a 10-year-old baby sister and just like I would do if my sister had she seen the video, I would sit down and discuss with her that this is behavior she should avoid.
How can you address that to the other 10-year-old girls that aren’t your sister?
I do recognize that there are young people who have followed me from Disney and that is something that will be addressed. That video blog was addressed to my younger fans, because I was getting tweets that said, 'Do you not believe in girl power? Do you not believe in being a Cheetah Girl anymore?' Somewhere down the line I’ll have a more serious conversation with my younger fans who may be concerned and confused about the video. But this wasn’t targeted towards them.
What was your mother’s reaction?
My mom loved the song. My mother is a songwriter, she’s an artist and she understands the cultural meaning of the song.
Can we expect these type of lyrical and visual messages from you in the future?
Absolutely. I have a song called “Shut the Fuck Up” that I am in love with. It's about how women constantly placate men, and let them talk because they're paying for dinner, but really you're thinking ‘Shut the fuck up! I don’t want to hear what you have to say.’ What I would like to do is more and more powerful messages that wake people up. Wake up!
