Ashley Banjo has issued a statement following 15,000 complaints over Diversity's Black Lives Matter-themed Britain’s Got Talent performance.
The dance troupe performed the moving routine during last week’s pre-recorded semi-final and while their efforts immediately won huge praise from fans on social media, a number of viewers have since contacted Ofcom.
Banjo, 31, has now addressed the controversy in a 7-minute video posted on Instagram.
He tells fans: "It's been a crazy week and I've kind of been a bit quiet on social (media), I've been living life trying not to get caught up in it all.
"But I feel like now is the time to just come out and say a few things. Firstly, I just want to say thank you to all the people who supported what me and Diversity did with that performance. They've reached out, honestly it's overwhelming the positive reaction to what we did.”
Banjo, who is serving as a judge in this year’s BGT finals while Simon Cowell recovers from a broken back, added that the troupe have received “hundreds of thousands of messages, comments, DMs, and just interactions in the street.”
“I know that a lot of the press reports and the headlines have been about the complaints and the negativity, but trust me I'm right in the centre of it and the negativity is the minority,” he continues.
"The positive response has been huge so thank you so much to everyone that has supported, shown love, and stood by what we did.
"We stand by every single decision we made with that performance."
Banjo also revealed that he has received “racial abuse and threats” since the dance.
“I'm not going to give light to it, I'm not going to give it any more time than it deserves,” he said of the nasty messages. “But a lot of the negativity, the nastiness, and the racism shows exactly why these performances and exactly why this conversation that has arisen is so necessary.
“Racism is very real, I've known it before and I definitely know it now.”
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A number of famous faces have defended Banjo and his fellow dancers, with Alesha Dixon sharing her support for the one-time BGT winners on Instagram.
As is standard procedure, Ofcom will now assess the complaints before deciding whether to investigate.