During an interview on SiriusXM's 'The Clay Cane Show', Mathew Knowles also makes use of Kelly Rowland's solo success outside the States as example of skin tone segregation.
- June 20, 2019
AceShowbiz - Beyonce Knowles would not have become a superstar if she had darker skin, according to her father and former manager.
Mathew Knowles insists his daughter would not have rocketed to the top of the charts as the leader of Destiny's Child and then as a solo force if she didn't have light skin.
"In the music industry, there's still segregation," Knowles told SiriusXM's "The Clay Cane Show" on Wednesday, June 19. "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."
"If you look back, even, like, Whitney Houston, if you look at those photos, how they lightened her to make her look lighter in complexion... there's a perception, colourism, the lighter that you are, the smarter, the more economically... there's a perception all around the world about colour, even with black folks."
And asked if darker skin would have impacted Beyonce's career, Mathew added, "I think it would have affected her success."
Using her Destiny's Child bandmate Kelly Rowland as an example, he claimed her solo success in America was affected by her skin colour, but stated, "The great thing is Kelly did exceptional outside of America, especially in Australia. Kelly sold over four million records. She just got off script."
