Sarah Brand: Viral pop song 'purposely sung out of tune'

Sarah Brand's video has had more than two million views and caused a lot of confusion

A woman whose divisive pop video received more than two million views online claims she sang out of key on purpose.

Sarah Brand's song Red Dress had thousands of people debating whether it was an elaborate hoax or downright bad.

A year on, she has told her TikTok followers her vocals in the video are deliberately "out of place".

Ms Brand was doing a master's degree in sociology at Oxford University at the time.

She filmed the elaborate video to Red Dress at a church in Oxford with a host of actors and extras.

Ms Brand, who is from Los Angeles, directed it herself and played the role of two women, one in a white dress and another who crashes proceedings in the titular red dress.

When it was released the A.V. club said it invited a "kind of car wreck curiosity", while Newsweek debated whether it was part of a "grand social experiment" .

Last year, Ms Brand told the BBC her work was a "cinematic, holistic portrayal of judgement", but did not comment on the quality of her singing.

In the TikTok video she says: "Feel confused? That's a common sentiment after watching my music video."

She added: "Red Dress was about judgement. And so we follow this woman into a church community where she's met with exclusion and judgement.

"So how can I make the real world audience feel that judgement?

"Well one, the vocals are out of place just like that character, and two, the music video's music being out of place and out of key incite judgement from the real world audience."

The explanation did not satisfy everyone, with one user posting: "I feel like you just legit tried to make music, watched it flop online, and tried to make up some Oxford-level excuse for it all."

But another replied: "Honestly makes more sense that this is performance art."

On YouTube, a commenter wrote: "She is actually hitting all the notes... only of other songs. And at random."

Ms Brand was doing a master's degree in sociology at Oxford University

Ms Brand said she had been "impressed" by "some very, very witty comments"

She followed it up with American Gap Rap, a song about socio-economic inequality in the US, in which her voice was heavily autotuned.

One of the actors in the Red Dress video was Tristan Robinson, who told the BBC: "You have to give her credit for putting her heart and soul into it."