Avril Lavigne defends Hello Kitty music video

Canadian pop singer Avril Lavigne has defended her brightly coloured video for Hello Kitty against charges of racism.

The video features the 29-year-old prancing about in various Japanese-themed sets motifs in front of four grimacing Asian dancers.

The Japan-shot clip also finds Lavigne singing in a bedroom, a candy store and a sushi restaurant.

Billboard called the video an "embarrassment in any language," USA Today linked to the clip's "cringeworthy glory" while referencing the possibility that it was racist and Entertainment Weekly questioned whether the video was "offensive ... or offensively obvious."

• Avril Lavigne's Hello Kitty video pulled amid criticism

Lavigne countered such talk on her Twitter account late Wednesday, laughing off accusations of racism.

"RACIST??? LOLOLOL!!!" she tweeted to her 15.6 million followers. "I love Japanese culture and I spend half of my time in Japan.

"I flew to Tokyo to shoot this video specifically for my Japanese fans, WITH my Japanese label, Japanese choreographers AND a Japanese director IN Japan."

Lavigne then tweeted a link to the video, which had been uploaded to YouTube again after being briefly taken down.

Her self-titled latest album,Avril Lavigne, limped to the worst sales figures of her career in North America but still went platinum in Japan.

Mobile users can watch the video here