An interview done by Beyonce’s father, Mathew Knowles, shows that the singer won’t have made it this big in her music career if she wasn’t light-skinned. The interview was done a month before the release of Brown Skin Girl by Beyonce which features her daughter Blue Ivy and Wizkid.
The song, which is currently making waves worldwide alongside other songs in the album “The Lion King: The Gift”, is positioned to encourage dark-skinned people to embrace their melanin nature.
However, Beyonce’s father is of the opinion that being dark-skinned doesn’t help propagate celebrities in the entertainment world. Speaking during an interview on SiriusXM’s “The Clay Cane Show”, Knowles gave an example of how being light-skinned helps celebrities.
“In the music industry there’s still segregation. Programmers, especially at pop radio, [have] this imagery of what beauty looks like. They wanted that imagery to be the same as singing those records”.
He continued by stating how music record companies create a perception of what a black woman should look like.
“If you look back even at Whitney Houston, if you look at those photos, how they lightened her to make her look lighter-complexioned”.
Giving reasons why such was done to photos of Whitney Houston, Knowles added:
“Because there’s a perception and a colorism: the lighter that you are, the smarter and more economically [advantaged]… There’s a perception all around the world about color — even with black folks, there’s a perception”.
When asked if colorism impacted on his daughter’s success, he said:
“I think she would have had — I think it would’ve affected her success”.
He went on to reveal how being dark-skinned didn’t help singer Kelly Rowland succeed much in the US.
“And I use Kelly Rowland as an example. She’s a great example. But you know, the great thing is, Kelly did exceptional outside of America, especially in Australia. Kelly sold over 4 million records. She just got off-script.”
