Adele posted a picture on her Instagram page as a tribute to Notting Hill Carnival that was canceled amid the COVID-19 pandemic. She was slammed for her hairstyle and bikini top in the picture.

On Sunday, the 32-year-old musician uploaded a picture to mark the Notting Hill Carnival. The festival pays a tribute to Black and Caribbean culture in the United Kingdom. 

While the event had to be canceled because of the ongoing pandemic, the British pop star was criticized for sporting a traditional African hairstyle called Bantu knots and a bikini top with Jamaican flags in the picture, People magazine reports.

The singer broke the Internet after she posted the picture of what many netizens considered to be highly controversial. Given the prevailing global health crisis, the event was completely online this year, CNN reports. 

Even though the photo has already managed to accumulate more than 3.8 million likes, the songstress’ appearance was not liked by some of the fans. They alleged the Grammy Award-winning singer of indulging in cultural appropriation. 

.One of her followers on Instagram mentioned that Black Women face discrimination for donning cultural hairstyles such as locs and Bantu knots while white women are not, which is not fair. Another fan feels that the singer’s hairstyle was “unnecessary.”

A second user on Instagram thinks that Caribbeans should travel to Canada or the United States of America to know how they are treated in these countries. The user further wrote that Canadians and Americans would not even hire the Blacks or even look at them with hair styled like that. 

A third user opines that Adele should have been aware of what could be the aftereffects of her IG post, particularly in the prevailing climate. The user added that instead of trying to divert the attention on her by using the costume of the Blacks, the singer should use her celebrity status and position to increase awareness and speak up against the atrocities against the Black people. 

However, that does not mean that all Netizens were against the photo that she posted on social media. Some of them came in the defense of the British musician. A user insisted that some people were just making too much of the photo and are overreacting. 

They feel that the photo she posted does not trigger cultural appropriation. Rather, she tried to celebrate the diversity of cultures. Another user mentioned that some of the netizens should realize the distinction between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation. 

Another follower wrote that Adele’s picture brought a smile to her face. It showed the kind of influence a small country as Jamaica has on the entire world.