Warner Music has signed the first ever record deal with a virtual pop star in what is a potentially seismic moment in the industry — but is facing a backlash online for ‘sexualising a child-like body’ in the avatar’s ‘creepy’ debut music video.

Noonoouri was created in 2018 as an 18-year-old metaverse avatar, before going on to star in fashion campaigns for Dior, Balenciaga and Valentino.

The digital influencer has so far amassed more than 400,000 followers on Instagram and is now set to release her first single Dominoes, which has already had more than 60,000 views on YouTube.

It did not hit the right note with most pop fans, however, as they took to social media to slam Warner’s ‘disgusting’ decision to create ‘pedo clickbait’ with a music video that features Noonoouri wearing Kim Kardashian‘s shapewear brand Skims.

One X user wrote ‘Why….is it a child?’, while another said: ‘Just when I thought they couldn’t sink lower.’

Others said Noonoouri had the body of a ’12 year old’ and was ‘so disgusting’, while X user Lachlan Blackmore added: ‘Is this the look Warner want to be associated with?’ 

It is not the first time parents have expressed concern about metaverse characters being ‘hypersexualised’, in particular in relation to the game Avakin Life, where virtual pop star Polar regularly performs to crowds of teenagers. 

‘My daughter has been on this app around three months. She is 15. The app alleges safe to play for over 13s. She has met children younger than that, parading their avakin dolls in skimpy underwear, looking for relationships, mentioning sex,’ one parent wrote in a review of the game.

‘What is unclear is how many of these kids are actually kids and not adults looking for kids.’

Avakin Life said at the time that it took teen safety ‘very seriously’, and highlighted that it had a reporting system.

A spokesperson for Warner Music Central Europe said: ‘Noonoouri is a long-standing digital character who we’ve signed to a record deal.

‘She’s not AI generated, though AI assisted tech was used to help create her singing voice.

‘Talented songwriters and musicians wrote and recorded her debut track Dominoes, and we can’t wait for fans to discover it.’

The company has not revealed how much its record deal with Noonoouri is worth but every singer, songwriter and musician who contributed to the debut track will receive royalties and publishing splits, as is the case with traditional music production.  

Noonoouri’s voice has a raspiness to it after being created using generative AI, a technology that takes existing data and transforms it into something entirely new.

It involved taking the recording of a real human singer and modifying it to give the pop star her unique vocal identity.  

The character’s debut single features 38-year-old German DJ and music producer Alle Farben, whose real name is Frans Zimmer. 

In an Instagram post, Noonoouri wrote: ‘Music plays a big role in my life since the beginnings.

‘It sets me into the mood and nourishes my visions and ideas to bring them to life as a driving force inside of me. 

‘Warner Music is the home of a lot of my fave music artists. 

‘I cannot be more thankful and honoured to join such a wonderful family, where music tunes are the beat of life.’

Noonoouri was created by 43-year-old graphic designer Joerg Zuber, from Munich. 

Commenting on her debut music video on Instagram, he said: ‘After two years working so hard on this music project, we finally can share this incredible teamwork with world — thank you @warnermusic.de for believing in us #TheBeginning.’

Warner Music’s announcement comes just a month after it emerged that rival Universal Music was in talks with Google to license artists’ voices and melodies so they can be used for songs generated by AI. 

Discussions are at a very early stage and no product launch is imminent, but the aim is to come to an agreement whereby more software can be developed that allows fans to create AI songs and pay the owners of the copyright.

Artists would be given the choice of opting in or out of the venture.

It is a similar situation to the one the music business found itself in with the rise of YouTube, where people began using hit songs as soundtracks to videos they had created.

This led to years of legal wrangling over copyright infringement until an agreement was reached that sees the music industry paid about $2 billion (£1.5 billion) a year for user-generated clips.

MailOnline has contacted Warner Music for comment on the concerns that Noonoouri resembles a child.  

For years, popstar Lizzo has been praised for being a champion of body positivity.

But the feminist icon now sees her career hanging in the balance after being sued by three of her former backup dancers accusing her of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment.

The singer, 35, was sued by her ex-dancers Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez, claiming they made her perform sex acts with a banana and that she ‘weight-shames’ all of her dancers privately.

It’s a stark contrast to the gregarious body public image Lizzo has put out, which sees her tirelessly promote body positivity and inclusion.

So, as Lizzo sees her career on the verge of cancellation, MailOnline takes a look-back at the rise and fall of the US superstar…

Her rise to prominence 

Born Melissa Jefferson, Lizzo is best known as a US singer and rapper, who kickstarted her career with her hits Juice and Good As Hell in 2019.

Her music career first took off while she was living in Minneapolis, and she received huge support from legendary artist Prince.

During her rise to stardom, Lizzo performed with many different groups and duos, forming an electro soul-pop duo called Lizzo and the Larva Inks, as well as an all-female rap and R&B group, The Chalice. 

Her father, Michael, passed away when she was 21, and following his death, Lizzo struggled with her mental mental health and lived in her car while pursuing music as a career. 

When her song Truth Hurts flopped in 2017, Lizzo admitted she came dangerously close to quitting music and sought therapy, telling The Times in 2020: ‘That was really scary.

‘But being vulnerable with someone I didn’t know, then learning how to be vulnerable with people that I do know, gave me the courage to be vulnerable as a vocalist.’

The tracks that made Lizzo a star were a far cry from her original career path as a classical flutist, though she regularly shows off her skills on-stage. 

Her first major label album Cuz I Love You, made it into the Billboard Top Ten, a featured the one-flopped track Truth Hurts, which received a huge resurgence despite originally being released in 2017.

Lizzo released her second mainstream album, Special, in 2022, which featured one of her most well-known tracks About Damn Time, which soared to number one on the US charts.

A body positivity advocate

Ever since her career began, Lizzo has been praised for advocating body positivity and confidence, no matter your size or shape. 

She’s never shied away from flaunting her curves in a slew of sexy and revealing looks, whether it be on-stage, the red carpet, or Instagram. 

But in a previous interview with Vogue, she revealed that she would prefer to be known for being ‘body-normative,’ rather than ‘body positive’.

She said: ‘I think it’s lazy for me to just say I’m body positive at this point…I would like to be body-normative. I want to normalize my body.’

The star also added that she’s ready to continue paving the way for ‘girls with back fat’ and ‘girls with bellies that hang’ saying, ‘I owe it to the people who started this to not just stop here.

‘We have to make people uncomfortable again, so that we can continue to change. Change is always uncomfortable, right?’

Lizzo is also no stranger to defending herself and the body positivity movement, appearing on The Zane Lowe Show in August 2021, saying: ‘People saying s**t about me that just doesn’t even make sense. It’s fat-phobic, and it’s racist, and it’s hurtful.

‘If you don’t like my music, cool. If you don’t like Rumors, the song, cool. But a lot of people don’t like me because of the way I look.’

She also said, ‘It’s like it doesn’t matter how much positive energy you put into the world, you’re still going to have people who have … something mean to say about you. 

‘And for the most part, it doesn’t hurt my feelings—I don’t care. I just think when I’m working this hard, my tolerance gets lower. My patience is lower. I’m more sensitive, and it gets to me.

‘I’m only going to focus on positive comments from here on out. I don’t have time for your negativity, your internalised self-hatred that you project onto me with your racism and fatphobia. I don’t have time for it. Anyways, I’m going to continue to be me. I’m going to continue to be a bad b*tch.’

Hitting back at fat-shamers

As an advocate for body positivity, Lizzo has been forced to hit back at trolls on multiple occasions, even threatening to quit music altogether after falling victim to fat-shaming critics.

In May 2023, she was left incensed after seeing a mean comment online from author Layah Heilpern which read: ‘How is Lizzo still THIS fat when she’s constantly moving this much on stage?! I wonder what she must be eating.’

Reposting the comment, Lizzo wrote: ‘JUST logged on and the app and this is the type of s**t I see about me on a daily basis It’s really starting to make me hate the world. 

‘Then someone in the comments said I eat “lots of fast food” I LITERALLY STOPPED EATING FAST FOOD YEARS AGO… I’m tired of explaining myself all the time and I just wanna get on this app w/out seeing my name in some bulls**t.

The star added that she ‘hated’ Twitter and said ‘this is what my body looks like when I’m eating clean and working out.’

Lizzo has also called out ‘fake doctors’ who tried to diagnose people who were struggling with their weight on TikTok, and also shut down rumours she’d ‘killed someone’ by stage-diving at her concert.

When a nude image of her body resurfaced, an internet troll attempted to body-shame Lizzo via Twitter, but it quickly backfired as fans rallied round to support her.

A feminist icon

Along with promoting body positivity, Lizzo has been vocal about the double standards pegged on women in the industry, balking at the idea that she is ‘brave’ for embracing her figure.

When speaking to Glamour as part of the publication’s ‘F’ word series, Lizzo expressed frustration when people use the word ‘brave’ to describe the confidence she exudes. 

‘When people look at my body and be like, “Oh my God, she’s so brave,'” it’s like, “No, I’m not,”‘ Lizzo said. ‘I’m just fine. I’m just me. I’m just sexy.’

She then mentioned how a double standard can exist with other women in the industry depending on their body type.  

‘If you saw Anne Hathaway in a bikini on a billboard, you wouldn’t call her brave,’ Lizzo said. ‘I just think there’s a double standard when it comes to women.’

In an interview with Vanity Fair in 2022, Lizzo added that her wild and colourful stage outfits are also helping her make a statement.

She said: ‘I wanted to be like a dancer, and also it was kind of political and feminist in my eyes to have me, a full-figured dancer, wearing leotards, showing and celebrating curves and being Olympian in strength, endurance, and flexibility. ‘

Plaudits for her groundbreaking series…

In 2022, Lizzo was praised by viewers for her groundbreaking new Amazon reality series, Watch Out For The Big Grrls.

The series follows Lizzo as she tries to put together a team of backup dancers who look more like her than the usual stick-thin dancers other musicians hire.

‘I needed big girls more than I needed a television show,’ she said of her show, explaining that she had trouble finding dancers who matched her size.

‘I didn’t see me reflected in the dancers and then one day I said, ‘You know what motherf***er, if I gotta get a TV show to bring some awareness for this, then pull up my sleeves and let’s go,” she recounted at the SXSW festival earlier this month.

She also said that her series would distinguish itself from other reality shows by not forcing the contestants to resort to cruelty to get a leg up on the competition.

‘It was also important that I changed the narrative of what a reality competition television show looks like,’ Lizzo explained. ‘We don’t always have to be cruel, we can be kind. We don’t have to pit people against each other.’

She continued, ‘I feel like it’s hard enough in the dance world already for girls who look like me, so why would I create that environment in my space? If I had the power to change that, why not change that?’

The series earned widespread critical acclaim, and won Outstanding Directing for a Reality Programme at the Emmy Awards.

… but a lawsuit brings backstage claims to the surface

While on the outside, Lizzo’s series was praised for its body positive image, over a year later, perceptions have changed.

In August 2023 it was revealed that she is being sued by three of her former backup dancers who accused her of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment.

The plaintiffs – her former dancers – are named in the lawsuit as Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams, and Noelle Rodriguez. Williams and Davis both appeared on the recent Amazon Prime reality show ‘Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls’ – about the singer’s quest to find backup dancers. 

It accused the famous singer of ‘inviting cast members to take turns touching the nude performers,’ inside an Amsterdam strip club, the suit states.

She allegedly encouraged ‘catching dildos launched from the performers’ vaginas, and eating bananas protruding from the performers’ vaginas.’

Ron Zambrano, the women’s lawyer, said in the suit, revealed first by NBC News: ‘The stunning nature of how Lizzo and her management team treated their performers seems to go against everything Lizzo stands for publicly.

‘While privately she weight-shames her dancers and demeans them in ways that are not only illegal but absolutely demoralizing.’ 

Lizzo is not the only named defendant in the case, which was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday.

Her dance captain, Shirlene Quigley, is also facing a slew of accusations.

Quigley, according to the lawsuit, shared ‘lewd sexual fantasies,’ and publicly discussed the virginity of one of the plaintiffs while berating those who had had pre-marital sex. 

The complaints for all damages include: Hostile work environment, sexual harassment, religious harassment, racial harassment, disability discrimination, and failure to prevent or remedy the harassment. 

Lizzo is specifically accused of disability discrimination, creating a hostile work environment, sexual harassment, and failing to stop said issues. 

Her touring company Big Grrrl Big Touring Inc. is also named as a defendant. 

Inside the Amsterdam strip joint, Lizzo allegedly ‘turned her attention to Ms. Davis and began pressuring Ms. Davis to touch the breasts of one of the nude women.’

Davis refused multiple times, while the popstar allegedly chanted louder and louder to encourage her to do the act, the lawsuit claimed. Davis eventually did touch the performer. 

In another instance, the plaintiffs claim Lizzo invited the dancers to a club in Paris – but failed to mention that it was a nude cabaret bar. This ‘shocked’ the dancers, who said Lizzo ‘robbed them of the choice not to participate,’ the suit said. 

Lizzo also allegedly made a claim the dancers were drinking before performances, which Williams then spoke out about. The popstar allegedly made the group go through an ‘excruciating’ 12-hour rehearsal. 

Davis, meanwhile, soiled her pants during the intense rehearsal because she was so fearful she’d lose her job, the documents state. She was then handed a see-through outfit with no undergarments to finish the performance, the suit said. 

Rodriguez complained to a manager about the decision to publicly fire Williams, after Lizzo had told the group she had ‘eyes and ears everywhere.’

Davis recorded the meeting on April 27, because she claimed she suffers from an eye condition that leaves her disoriented.

But as a result, Lizzo held a meeting and had security confiscate dancers’ phones, the lawsuit claimed. 

When Davis tried to tell Lizzo and Quigley she meant no harm recording the meeting, they berated her and Lizzo fired her on the spot, the suit read. 

Rodriguez then expressed how she felt disrespected and threatened to resign – to which Lizzo said she was ‘lucky.’ 

When Rodriguez did indeed quit, Lizzo showed her two middle fingers and yelled a slur at her, the lawsuit claimed. 

After the lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles, two more women came forward with similar claims – dancer Courtney Hollinquest and director Sophia Nahil Allison.

‘For clarification, I’m not a part of of the lawsuit – but this was very much my experience in my time there,’ Hollinquest began.

‘Big shoutout to the dancers who had the courage to bring this to light,’ she added, with a black prayer hand emoji and a black hand heart emoji. 

Quinn Wilson, who previously worked as Lizzo’s creative director, also shared Hollinquest’s Instagram story and added her own insight.

‘Echoing what @cquestt said. I haven’t been a part of that world for around three  years, for a reason,’ Wilson said in her own caption.

‘I very much applaud the dancers’ courage to bring this to light. And I grieve parts of my own experience. I’d appreciate space to understand my feelings,’ Wilson concluded.

Hollinquest added in her own caption, ‘My sister forever. Only a few knew what we’ve been through… Love u Quinn.’

Hollinquest added in another Instagram story post, ‘To know me is to know I love community – and that my forever mission is to create safe spaces, especially for BIPOC femmes.’

‘This remains my purpose whether I’m dancing, creating TV or throwing events & has only strengthened through my experiences – good + bad,’ she continued.

‘Thankful for the people who have trusted me this far, and know the ethos will never change, only grow,’ she added, giving a shout out to @baileworld and @friedplantains.la ‘for allowing me the platform to do just that.’

While Lizzo is yet to respond to the claims in the lawsuit, hours after it came to light, Beyonce left out her name from the lyrics of her remixed version of Break My Soul.

The lyric mentioning Lizzo goes: ‘Betty Davis, Solange Knowles / [Erykah Badu], Lizzo, Kelly Rowl’ (You know you can do it).’

But in concert footage shared to Twitter, Beyonce purposely replaces Lizzo’s name with four repetitions of ‘Badu.’

Where’s the ball?! Texas fielders totally lose Stanford’s hit in the sky as costly error leads to bizarre walk-off win to send rivals to the College World Series

• Texas fielders couldn’t track Drew Bowser’s pop fly and Stanford walked it off 
• Stanford is set to play Wake Forest, the top seed in the tournament 
• DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news 

By Associated Press and Jake Fenner For Dailymail.Com

Published: 08:47 EDT, 13 June 2023 | Updated: 08:47 EDT, 13 June 2023

The Duke of Sussex slipped in and out of Buckingham Palace after the Coronation without seeing senior members of the Royal Family during his visit to Britain, it was claimed last night.

The report claimed Prince Harry spent less than half an hour at the Palace after the Westminster Abbey service, before travelling to Heathrow Airport to return to the United States on Saturday.

Photos show the Prince left Westminster Abbey at 1.15pm and entered a black BMW.

He was spotted exiting the A4 at 1.50pm and at the entrance to Heathrow at 2pm.

The Prince’s dash to the airport makes timings tight for any pit-stop at Buckingham Palace, which the report in the Telegraph said was for ‘logistical reasons’, to take a moment out of the public eye after the two-hour ceremony.

Former Royal Protection Officer Ken Wharfe told MailOnline today that there was ‘logistically, just no way’ the Duke could have stopped off at the Palace.

‘From the West End to Heathrow, you’re looking at about 35 minutes under police escort, that’s the quickest you’re ever going to do it,’ he said.

‘My own view is I can’t see any point in him going to the Palace, there’d be nobody there to receive him anyway and all his family were there at the Abbey for the Coronation.

‘I think it’s highly unlikely he stopped off. I can’t see any reason for it. 

‘It sounds ridiculous but the only possible reason would be to stop off if he needed the toilet or felt unwell.’

Mr Wharf also added that it would be ‘impossible’ for Harry to have entered and left the Palace without being seen, particularly with so many people in central London on the day. 

It comes after the King expressed ‘regret’ over Harry’s absence and toasted ‘those that weren’t there’ during the Royal Family’s celebratory lunch.

The Duke was back in California on Sunday morning and therefore did not join the Royal Family for official Coronation portraits and was not at the Coronation Concert.

Sources told the Telegraph, Prince Harry’s lack of contact was ‘practical’ and he was eager to return to his wife and children in the United States while the rest of the family were busy with the Coronation procession.

It is the first time Prince Harry is thought to have been at the Palace since the Queen’s funeral last September.

He was in Britain earlier this year to attend court cases but is not known to have seen King Charles III or Prince William. 

He was seated in the third row for his father and stepmother’s crowning in Westminster Abbey – two rows behind his brother Prince William.

It is understood Prince Harry stuck to the dress code instructed for the ceremony, wearing a dark morning suit and tie, his Afghanistan and Jubilee medals pinned to his suit jacket, and a Royal Victorian Order star and neck decoration.

During the Royal Family’s lunch, King Charles III raised a glass to his three grandchildren Prince George – who also served as a Page of Honour – Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, who were among the stars of the show and carried out their public appearances with aplomb.

But he made a point of also toasting ‘those that weren’t there‘ and wished his other grandson a very happy birthday ‘wherever he was’.

‘It was apparently a very sweet moment,’ a source told MailOnline.

Meanwhile, a royal expert said last night that King Charles III’s first official portrait following the Coronation shows him as a ‘monarch who knows his own mind’, surrounded by ‘the people he can depend on’.

Monday saw the sovereign’s opening set of Royal photos unveiling the King’s new ‘slimmed down’ monarchy, with his ‘hard-working and respected’ sister, Princess Anne and loving wife Queen Camilla firmly by his side.

And to mark his reign as head of state, the 74-year-old sovereign was unveiled in a striking new solo portrait to commemorate his historic crowning.

‘This one is a strong forceful portrait of a monarch who knows his own mind and is very experienced,’ royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told MailOnline last night.

It comes as Harry’s wife Meghan was spotted hiking near their £11mmillion Montecito mansion just hours after the Coronation service.

The Duchess of Sussex was joined on the fresh-air outing by her friends, Markus Anderson and Heather Dorak, in California on Sunday after celebrating her son Archie’s birthday on Saturday.

It was the first time she had been seen in public since her father-in-law’s coronation on Saturday.

Meghan was noticeably absent from the regal festivities in the UK this weekend, as she remained in the U.S. to celebrate her son Archie’s ‘lowkey’ birthday at their Montecito home.

Sources claim Meghan decided to have the celebrations at the couple’s home, because ‘she felt it would be inauthentic to do anything else’.

Archie had a ‘private celebration’ with a lemon cake which was baked by the Duchess of Sussex using fruit from their garden, a source close to the couple said.

Archie’s grandmother Doria Ragland is thought to have attended the youngster’s birthday party, as well as Meghan’s close friend, make-up mogul Victoria Jackson, 65.

When asked if any of the party guests included celebrity neighbours such as Oprah Winfrey, a source said: ‘Some of their friends are celebrities, so yes, that’s likely. It will be a small, intimate gathering.’

Her estranged father Thomas Markle, 78, told the MoS he believed ‘it was for the best’ that the Duchess stayed at home. ‘There are too many disagreements between Meghan, Harry and the Royals,’ he added.

Meanwhile, the King today takes part in his first official engagement since being formally crowned, as he visits East Anglia. 

As the coronation festivities came to a close last night, the King and Queen pledged to rededicate their lives to service as Charles called the nation’s support throughout the historic celebrations ‘the greatest possible coronation gift’. 

Elsewhere, the Duchess of Edinburgh will visit Morden College in Blackheath, London, of which she is a patron, while the duke will attend a dinner at Stonehage Fleming at St James’s Square for his patron charity, the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Foundation. 

Buckingham Palace declined to comment on reports of the Duke’s visit.

Fake ‘lesbian’ pop duo Tatu have staged a reunion at Vladimir Putin‘s favourite football club despite efforts from his fanatics have the pair cancelled as ‘LGBT propaganda’.

Yulia Volkova and Lena Katina, now both 38, rose to stardom in 1999 – the same year the Russian despot first came to power.

Tatu were best known for their 2002 track All The Things She Said which caused international controversy for its steamy music video in which Yulia and Lena portrayed an underage lesbian couple.

In the video, the pair were seen in schoolgirl outfits, kissing passionately in the rain, while being watched by their peers.

ITV even refused to play the clip on Ant and Dec’s morning music show CD:UK, insisting: ‘It is not really suitable for children.’ 

Performing yesterday for the first time since their last reunion in 2016, Tatu sang Not Gonna Get us before Gazprom-backed Zenit St Petersburg’s clash with Spartak Moscow which the home side won 3-2, sealing a fifth Russian Premier League title in a row.

Tatu came out of retirement as Putin’s censors seek to expunge any trace of their band amid a hardline crackdown on LGBT propaganda, part of a wave of repressions in Russia during the war in Ukraine.

Speaking ahead of the match in front of thousands of Russian fans, they sang: ‘Nothing can stop this, ‘Not now, I love you’, ‘They’re not gonna get us’.’

Yulia is now a mother of two while Lena, now married to millionaire businessman Dmitry Spiridonov, was visibly pregnant with her second child.

Tatu has not existed since 2011, although they did reunite for a special performance seven years ago.

Despite this, they are subjected to a crackdown on Kremlin-obedient VK social media.

Ardently pro-Putin MP Tatiana Butskaya, 47, is demanding a full ban on Tatu content, arguing that the duo’s creativity ‘promoted’ same-sex relationships.

‘Never in my life in our childhood did it occur to me that a girl could be with a girl, until Tatu popped up,’ said Butskaya.

Girls began to ‘hold hands’ and this became normal, said Butskaya, a paediatrician and deputy chairman of the Russian parliament’s committee on families, women and children.

She told a conference: ‘A song is not just a rhythm and words, it’s “Look at me, do as I do, try, it’s okay”.’

The MP has even compared homosexuality with liver disease and tooth decay. ‘A boy should look like a boy, a girl should look like a girl,’ she said.

‘And if you have a disease, then it should be treated, and not bragged about.

‘A boy should be like a boy, a girl should be like a girl.’

Yet her hero Putin used Yulia and Lena at the opening of the Russian Winter Olympics in 2014, when the pair got back together.

The new wave of censoriousness coincides with the war in Ukraine – and they are held to be an example of the West poisoning Russia with alien values.

The pair caused a storm in Britain and elsewhere when they burst onto the international scene kissing and cuddling on stage while wearing scanty school uniforms.

Yulia, also an actress, has sought in vain to be elected in Putin’s party with an official calling her ‘bold’ and ‘professional’.

‘Yes, I have sinned, made mistakes, but I always found the way through pain, tears and suffering…,’ she said at the time. Yulia has not ruled out a new bid to be an MP.

The singer faced backlash after appearing on Russian TV show Lie Detector in 2014 after stating she would condemn her son if he came out as gay.

‘Yes, I would condemn him, because I believe that a real man must be a real man,’ she was translated as saying.

‘God created man for procreation, it is the nature. The man for me is the support, the strength of… I won’t accept a gay son.’

In a bid to justify her opinion, she added: ‘And a man has no right to be a f*g. Two girls together – not the same thing as the two men together. It seems to me that lesbians look aesthetically much nicer than two men holding their hands or kissing. 

In Britain, she enraged Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan who launched a campaign to ban the All The Things She Said video.

At their height of fame, the pair defied their critics and topped the charts in many Western countries as well as Russia.