Mathew Knowles Says If Beyonce Was Dark-Skinned ‘It Would Have Affected Her Success’, Uses Kelly Rowland As An Example

Mathew Knowles Says If Beyonce Was Dark-Skinned ‘It Would Have Affected Her Success’, Uses Kelly Rowland As An Example

Mathew Knowles says that Beyonce’s lighter skin played a factor in her mega success.

Mathew & Beyonce

The singer’s father and former manager opened up about it during an interview earlier this week. He dished on a study on colorism in the music industry he conducted. He discovered that a majority of the women who topped the charts over a 15-year period (like Rihanna, Beyonce, Alicia Keys, and Mariah Carey) were lighter toned.

Alicia Keys

Mariah Carey

Knowles said,

“In the music industry, there’s still segregation. You know there used to be the Black division, race records…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 went point out Whitney Houston and said,

Whitney Houston

He says,

“If you look back even at Whitney Houston, if you look at those photos, how they lightened her to make her look lighter-complexioned. 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 her career would have been different if Beyonce were dark-skinned, Knowles added,

“I think she would have had — it would’ve affected her success.”

Beyonce

He then used Kelly Rowland as an example.

“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.”

Kelly Rowland

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