The talent manager, who has made this same statement in the past, repeated it again when he visited Clay Cane on SiriusXM Urban View on Tuesday where they addressed the issue of colourism. He stated that he thinks Beyonce would not have been as successful if she were darker-skinned.
The host shared that his Texas Southern University students did a study that showed in a 15-year period, Top 40 airplay artists who were black women were all lighter-skinned. This list included Alicia Keys, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Mariah Carey and Beyoncé.
In reply to that, Knowles says: “In the music industry, there’s still segregation, as you know. There used to be the black division, race records, and programmers, especially at pop radio, has this imagery of what beauty looks like. They wanted that imagery to be the same that’s singing those records.
“If you look back, even like Whitney Houston, if you look at those photos, how they lighten her to make her look lighter complexion because there’s a perception in colourism…the lighter you are, the smarter, the more economically… all around the world about colour, even with black folks, there’s a perception.”
Cane then asked Knowles: “How different do you think Beyoncé’s career would have been if she were a darker skinned woman?”
Knowles replies: “I think it would have affected her success. I use Kelly Rowland [as] a great example. The great thing is Kelly did exceptional outside of America, especially in Australia. Kelly sold over 4 million records.”
