Beyonce’s father, Mathew Knowles has stated that the singer won’t have been this successful in her career had it been she was not light-skinned.
Mathew Knowles made this known when he spoke with Clay Cane on SiriusXM Urban View during which they discussed the impact colorism has on the music industry.
According to the host of the show, a research done by a Texas Southern University student showed that the top 40 female singers who are light-skinned e.g Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Nicki Minaj, Beyonce etc are the ones getting massive airplays.
In response, Beyonce’s father 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 then asked:
“How different do you think Beyoncé’s career would have been if she were a darker skinned woman?”
Beyonce’s father 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.”