Vanessa Carlton has the receipts…and no patience for white supremacy bs https://t.co/5Sbl4K9fGC

— Keith Kothman (@keithkothman) May 31, 2021

In 2018, the Pennsylvania native was at the forefront of a similar controversy, when she condemned Chris Brown for posting the video to “A Thousand Miles,” and expressed she did not want to be associated with “perpetrators of domestic violence.”

“Today Chris Brown posted my video. I am now being repeatedly tagged to his account,” she said. “Being that today is International Women’s Day I feel compelled to draw a line. I support survivors not perpetrators of domestic violence. I do not want to be associated with an artist that has assaulted women on a day like today.”

Brown responded to Carlton, writing that he just wanted to give credit where it’s due for a song that has been celebrated for nearly two decades. 

“@vanessacarlton I posted a song that was and still is a great song and the artist felt she was doing her duty as a WOMAN to continue to spread this kind of hatred today,” the multi-hyphenate wrote. “I won’t keep it up long. I just hope she knows she is loved and her song is great.”

In a Vice documentary entitled The Story of A Thousand Miles, Carlton opened up about the 3-time Grammy-nominated song’s origins, explaining that she wrote it about a love interest.

“The song is about a crush I had on a Juilliard student,” Carlton told Vice. “I would never talk to this person. I was very shy…I had a better a chance of falling up than ever having a relationship with this person. I can’t say the person’s name because they’re a famous actor and I don’t want to say it.” 

Carlton also revealed that the person who the song is about is unaware that they’re the inspiration for the iconic hit, written in New York City in the mid-90’s, when the singer was around 17 years old. 

“I’m purposefully…I’m not attaching a gender and it will remain like that,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “It’s better for everyone if it just remains a mystery.”