‘BEING LIGHT SKINNED HELPED BEYONCE ACHIEVE ALL SHE HAS TODAY’ – MATTHEW KNOWLES

Mathew Knowles, the father of multi-award winning singer Beyonce

in a new interview has revealed how the singer’s complexion helped her gain success in her career.

In an interview with Clay Cane on SiriusXM Urban View, Matthew talked about the impact colourism has on the music industry.

Cane during their discussion stated that research done by a Texas Southern

University student revealed that the top 40 female singers to include Rihanna,

Alicia Keys, Nicki Minaj, Beyonce etc are the ones getting massive airplay.

In response, Matthew said;

“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 image 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 went on to ask;

“How different do you think Beyoncé’s career would have been if she were a darker skinned woman?”

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Matthew responded:

“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.”