Cliff Notes – Liam Gallagher apologises after tweeting ‘racial slur’ ahead of Oasis reunion tour
- Liam Gallagher faced backlash from South Korean fans after tweeting the derogatory term “chingchong,” prompting an apology for any offence caused.
- The incident occurred just before the reunion tour of Oasis, marking the band’s first performances together since 2009, starting in Cardiff on July 4.
- Following the controversy, Gallagher expressed regret on social media, stating his love for fans and clarifying that the tweet was not intended to be malicious.
Liam Gallagher apologises after tweeting ‘racial slur’ ahead of Oasis reunion tour
Liam Gallagher has been forced to apologise to South Korean Oasis fans on social media after appearing to publicly tweet out a ‘racial slur’.
The Oasis frontman, 52, will be taking to the stage again with older brother Noel, 58, from Friday, July 4 when the worldwide Oasis Live 25 tour gets under way in Cardiff.
After originally splitting up in 2009, the Gallagher brothers are back together for the first time in 15 years – they announced their sold-out reunion gigs last year.
On the tour, the duo will be stopping over at the Goyang Stadium in October – a 41,000-capacity arena situated to the northwest of South Korea’s capital city, Seoul.
However, Liam has left some South Korean Oasis fans feeling hurt after screenshots posted on X appeared to show him tweeting the phrase ‘chingchong’.
‘Chingchong’ (believed to have originated in the 19th century) is understood as an offensive or derogatory phrase that’s used to mock or denigrate East Asian languages.
While usually intended to insult people who speak Chinese languages, it has also been applied towards languages and speakers from Japan and South Korea.
Liam deleted the post shortly afterwards, with the original tweet generating a flurry of responses from South Korean fans, criticising his choice of words.
@Hrpss8 tweeted, ‘Liam, you can’t say that’ to which Liam appeared to respond ‘Why?’ When @Icey_Melted warned Liam that he might be about to ‘offend his own fans’, the former Beady Eye frontman joked, ‘Chill out Birdy’.
In further screenshots, Liam then apparently described ‘chingchong’ as being an ‘ancient thought process’ and informed fans that was actually ‘zillions of years old’.
When one fan – @LiamPurrs – said that Liam’s tweets had made them feel ‘aggressive’, a still-readable tweet said: ‘You need work on that and don’t be blaming other people for your weaknesses’.
South Korean music fan account @KK10000 tweeted: ‘When your favourite global singer goes rogue and tweets a racial slur instead of their next hit—yikes!’
However, a few hours later, Liam retracted his comments and apologised, saying: ‘Sorry if I offended anyone with my tweet before, it wasn’t intentional, you know I love you all and I do not discriminate. Peace and love LG x.’
Before his apology, @Icey_Melted forgave Liam for the slip-up and understood he hadn’t behaved maliciously, saying: ‘I hope that you don’t actually think that I have a lot of hate in my soul or whatever, you know that I love you and that I’m grateful for you right.’
Liam replied: ‘Only kidding, I know you’re a good egg.’
Oasis’ long-awaited reunion tour kicks off in Cardiff on Saturday at the Principality Stadium, with more than 74,000 people expected to attend.
Over on X, someone standing outside of the Welsh capital’s stadium was listening to the band’s soundcheck on Monday afternoon and revealed the Whatever hitmakers sound ‘biblical’.
The group are playing Cigarettes and Alcohol in the video, and Conor quipped: ‘Oasis soundcheck in Cardiff just now. @liamgallagher sounding biblical.’
Fans have gone wild over the video on social media, although there’s been some debate around whether or not it was a live soundtrack or simply a recording to test sound levels until everyone is on site later this week.