Pop star Lorde has been forced to apologise after sparking outrage on social media when she posted what she called an “insensitive” reference to the late singer Whitney Houston.

The 21 year old New Zealand-born hitmaker shared a photo on Instagram of a bathtub filled with water, captioned with the words “and iiii will always love you”. Oops!

Legendary soul and R&B singer Whitney Houston passed away in 2012 at the age of 48, when she accidentally drowned in a bathtub in a hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Houston’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, died three years later in 2015 in eerily similar circumstances.

LordeLorde apologised for posting the image via her Instagram page that offended some fans

Lorde’s Instagram post incurred the wrath of many, as fans branded the image “insensitive” and asked her to take it down. One outraged Twitter user said: “This is disgusting idk how people find it funny. Whitney was a legend. She was amazing. She was a queen. She was a strong black woman. I like Lorde but this is truly disgusting.”

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The ‘Royals’ singer later took down the post and apologised for being an “idiot” in her choice of words, assuring fans it was completely unintentional.

In a subsequent Instagram story on Thursday (April 5th), Lorde said: “I’m so sorry for offending anyone – I hadn’t even put this together I was just excited to take a bath. I’m an idiot. Love Whitney forever and ever. Sorry again.”

Having become a global superstar with her first record Pure Heroine back in 2013, Lorde eventually released her sophomore album Melodrama last summer, a well-received record that finished high up in many critics’ end-of-year lists.

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