The Voice's Olly Murs issues apology for sign language blunder 'Sorry to anyone offended'

express.co.uk:

He added to his 6.9 million followers: "I apologise and I’m sorry to anyone that was offended it genuinely came from a good place.

Much love Olly xx"His apology failed to placate everyone, with @percystoneville arguing: "Should have taken advice from people with lived experience and then this wouldn’t have happened."However, @1SamRafferty empathised, writing: "[In] 2022 unfortunately [people are] offended by everything."The British Deaf Association,@BDA_Deaf, also stepped in to commiserate on his mistake after earlier blasting him for it."You are not the only one who has been confused about the difference between #BritishSignLanguage – the first or preferred language of just under 90,000 Deaf people in the UK – and #Makaton, an artificial system (often called a communication tool)," the account wrote.It added: "Thank you very much @ollymurs for listening to our feedback."We truly appreciate the hard work you put in to reach out to your #Deaf fans, and we’re sorry that you didn’t receive the right information to make that happen quite as you had hoped."It had earlier emerged that The Voice UK coach had taken advice from the influencer Isabella Signs, who was also using the Makaton language.In their original statement, the BDA had written: "[We] have reached out to Olly Murs to offer support in making his music accessible to Deaf fans in the future.“We applaud Olly’s enthusiasm in wishing to reach out to his Deaf fans by performing a signed translation of his new song."Had he consulted a Deaf teacher or performer to teach him the song in BSL, the result would have been much more natural and authentic and the Deaf community would have been thrilled."The association added: “Other celebrities such as John Bishop and Chelsea.