Dua Lipa posted a birthday message to her father on the social media platform yesterday, originally writing “Happy birthday babi” with a throwback photo of the pair. — Reuters pic

PETALING JAYA, March 6 — British songstress Dua Lipa changed an Instagram post dedicated to her father after Malaysians picked up on her use of the word babi.

The pop star, who is of Albanian descent, posted a birthday message to her father on the social media platform yesterday, originally writing “Happy birthday babi” with a throwback photo of the pair.

Babi means dad in her parents’ native Albanian.

She changed the wording to “Happy birthday dad” after comments from Malaysians.

Social media users here mocked the New Rules singer and her use of the word babi, which means pig in Bahasa Malaysia.

Other Malaysians denounced those mocking the artiste over the term.

There’s renewed interest in Dua Lipa who announced last month she will bring her The Self-Titled Tour to Kuala Lumpur on May 3.

However, some fans now fear she may reconsider after the Instagram controversy.

“On behalf of some Malaysian(’s) immature acts, i sincerely apologise to you Dua. I hope this will not change your mind to perform in Malaysia,” wrote user onethousandyears.

“She got attacked for speaking and addressing in her own language. Malaysians need to chill,” added iamkhairuddin.

The singer’s record label confirmed there is no change to her scheduled appearance at KL Live.