Kelly Rowland Wants More Dark-Skinned Female Singers Like Fifth Harmony’s Normani Kordei

Christina Lee | March 21, 2016 12:56 pm
Little Mix Do The HIts
Little Mix's Get Weird Tour had the girl group covering Beyonce, Bieber and "Hotline Bling."

Kelly Rowland thinks that music could use more dark-skinned girl group singers. Like she was in Destiny’s Child. Or, to name a more recent example, Normani Kordei of Fifth Harmony. In fact, according to The Guardian, Normani was the only dark-skinned girl group singer that Kelly says she has seen lately.

“I want to be part of a change in that,” the R&B veteran said at SXSW.

Kelly was at the Austin music festival and conference to promote her BET reality show Chasing Destiny, where she hopes to form “the next big female superstar group.” She deliberately sought out “chocolate girls” in the process, because when she was growing up, at least she had Whitney Houston and Janet Jackson. “I feel it’s so necessary for my niece, my unborn kid, she has to see chocolate women,” Kelly said.

Such discrimination has historical roots. In the days of slavery, lighter-skinned Africans worked in the house while darker-skinned folks worked outside in the fields, which was more punishing. Now, such colorism has manifested itself to where, say, 2 Chainz can’t find black dolls for his 4-year-old daughter to play with — and his decision to cast darker-skinned models as eye candy for his “Feds Watching” video was actually seen as somewhat progressive.

Chasing Destiny premieres April 5. Watch Kelly Rowland talk the show on The Real below.

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