JoJo Siwa Addresses Controversial ‘Thank You to Beyoncé’ Joke at Industry Dance Awards

JoJo Siwa is a fan of Beyoncé, even if a joke she made at the Industry Dance Awards did stir the pot this week.

The Dance Moms alum jumped in on a runaway internet bit Tuesday (Oct. 8) when she shouted out the “Break My Soul” vocalist on stage at the ceremony, telling the crowd: “I also have to say thank you to Beyoncé, just so that we can keep the dancing community safe.”

“Beyoncé, you’ve got great music,” Siwa added at the time as audience members simultaneously groaned and laughed. “We all love to dance to it. We all love you. … Someone had to, and I will be the someone.”

Though the “Karma” singer’s thank-you may seem genuine enough, it actually ties back to a trend of some social media users jokingly giving Bey flowers at every opportunity to stay on her good side and/or maintain prosperous careers. Some people, however, have applied a darker meaning to the joke amid so-far unsubstantiated rumors that the 32-time Grammy winner and Jay-Z are linked to Sean “Diddy” Combs’ alleged crimes, as the Bad Boy Records founder is currently being held in custody as he awaits trial for charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.

When asked about her joke by Us Weekly one day after the Industry Dance Awards, Siwa said, “the internet’s going to run with whatever it is they run with.”

“They do their thing, and I can’t predict what they’re going to do,” the 21-year-old TikTok star added. “I think Beyoncé is great and she’s written a lot of incredible music that we’ve all used [and danced to].”

But while Siwa and other people on the internet aren’t taking certain comments about Bey seriously, the “Texas Hold ‘Em” artist’s legal team is. After Piers Morgan platformed Jaguar Wright on his show Uncensored, allowing the singer-songwriter to make claims about the Carters being “monsters” who have hundreds of victims, Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s lawyer instructed the polarizing media personality to remove the content from his channel — and Morgan obliged.

“Their lawyers contacted us to say that those claims were totally false and have no basis in fact,” Morgan said on another episode of his show earlier this week. “We’ve therefore complied with the legal request to cut them from the original interview. Editing interviews is not something we do lightly on a show called Uncensored. But, like the proverbial cries of fire in a crowded theater, there are legal limits on us, too. And we apologize to Jay-Z and Beyoncé.”