Perri Kiely says Diversity's Black Lives Matter routine on 'Britain's Got Talent' was "common sense".
Perri Kiely
The 25-year-old star's dance troupe delivered a powerful routine inspired by the movement earlier this year, which was backed by ITV and Ofcom despite the latter receiving more than 24,000 complaints over the political performance.
And the dancer has insisted they were right to use a "platform of that scale" to speak out on the serious issue.
Speaking to HuffPost UK, he said: "We’d never been those types of people to be “controversial” or put ourselves out there like that, but this was more than important, this was actually happening in the world, and we were given a platform of that scale – to us it was common sense."
Although Perri expected people to comment on their routine, he thought it was "insane" the show received thousands of complaints.
He explained: "With any performance you do, not everyone’s going to like it, and when you bring in a subject like that to TV, of course you’re going to expect people to say things... but I think it was like 24,000 complaints to Ofcom, which is insane, it’s unheard of. Especially when you’re not doing anything wrong, you’re just saying it how it is."
Perri insisted they do not regret their choice to take part in the movement as they all agreed it was the best decision as soon as Ashley Banjo suggested the routine.
He added: "Some people have asked us, ‘Do you regret it?’, but we don’t regret it at all. The minute Ashley said, ‘This is what we’re going to do’, we were all like ‘This is amazing, perfect.'"
Ashley recently hailed the performance an "important moment for race relations" in the UK.
Despite some negativity, the 32-year-old star insisted he was met with a lot of "positivity" from people and he feels proud that their art was able to influence the conversation about race in Britain.
He said last month: "There was a lot of positivity, a lot of incredible outreach.
"I had a lot of conversations with some people that I never thought I'd talk to in my life. I think it became - not that we intended it to be this - but it became a moment.
"It became a really important moment for race relations in this country, and something I think people will hopefully remember it. I'm proud of it."