BY Lorrine Dodds
BBC Three released a documentary on the evening of the 13th May this year, Leigh-Anne: Race, Pop & Power. This documentary educates a broad audience on subjects such as racism and colourism within the music industry. When Leigh-Anne becomes aware of the issues at hand, she uses her platform to her advantage and strives for change.
The documentary goes on to unwrap Leigh-Anne’s journey throughout 2020 tackling these issues within her label and the industry itself. Miah Manu, 22, from London studies events management and ‘found the documentary very informative and gave more of an insight to what It’s like to be a black artist within the pop industry.’
Leigh-Anne’s fame arose from Little Mix winning The X Factor in 2011. She explains how her identity was used to define her image throughout her Little Mix career. For example, the time she had her head shaved and dyed red on The X Factor to mimic Rhianna’s phase. Now that Leigh-Anne isn’t a naive 20 year old, she’s taking a stand.
Once Leigh-Anne was made aware of how racial factors are impacting the music industry, she chose to use her platform and celebrity status to speak out. She faced challenges and awkward conversations along the way. It would’ve been difficult for Leigh-Anne to question her fiancé, Andre Gray, about some tweets he wrote a few years ago. ‘I really respected how she challenged her partner on his previous racial tweets, it must’ve been a very uncomfortable conversation to have, but it gives the public an understanding that these conversations need to happen’ Miah claims.
Whilst shooting, Leigh-Anne began to notice how there were no people of colour on the team that she works with. She realises how conditioned everyone is to think that it’s normal to go into a room and see no people of colour. In 2018 the music industry is predominantly white, 80.6% to be exact. There’s just 17.8% representation of BAME within UK music. These statistics were found by UK Music from a 2018 Diversity Report. Recently, in 2020, the UK Music’s diversity report showed a rise over the past two years, but this rise still hasn't affected those in higher level senior roles.
It’s not only who's working in the industry that shows a racial bias, it’s also a case of who is getting the awards. Less than 20% of black musicians were awarded Album of The Year. At the Grammys in 2020 Tyler the Creator claimed, ‘whenever we – and I mean guys that look like me – do anything that’s genre-bending, they always put it in the rap or urban category.’ For example, the hottest country track Old Town Road, Lil Nas, wasn’t permitted to feature on the white country charts.
After educating herself, Leigh-Anne felt as if her platform wasn’t being used to the best it could be. She posted an instagram video speaking on racism like Alexandra Burke and Keisha Buchanan had done. Frank Gatson Jr. left a comment on this video, which made Leigh-Anne remember a remark he made when she was new to the music industry. He had told her that ‘you’re the black girl you’re gonna have to work 10 times harder’ which was so alien for her to hear. Frank explains ‘I just saw myself, I saw the little brown girl sitting over there, you know, really nervous like it’s a white world, and I gotta let her know the secret… we have to be the best that we can be because for so many years people have looked at us as less… we have to be the best that we can be because we’re representing our race.’
Leigh-Anne had set up a meeting with other women within the music industry to get to the core of the problem. Singer/songwriter Raye highlights, ‘you are in a as white as it gets environment,’ ‘you have to enhance the white in you, suppress the black, that’s how I felt.’ Alexandra Burke who was also involved in the meeting unveils that, ‘when I was 15 they told me and said we’ve got one black person, we can’t have another. I got that a couple of times,’ ‘being told to bleach my skin, being told I'm too dark to be in the industry,’ ‘that’s what’s so fucked up about this industry… they took my confidence away so much that I couldn't be me.’ Furthermore, Keisha Buchanan revealed that she didn’t leave the Sugarbabes, she was replaced. Additionally, Misha B was left with thoughts of suicide even though she was being slated for being a bully on X Factor.
After the meeting Leigh-Anne questions ‘if I was some shades darker would I be sat here right now’. Additionally, Beyoncé‘s father, Mathew Knowles, believes that if Beyoncé had been darker skinned then she wouldn’t be faced with the same success.
When Leigh-Anne meets with Jade Thirlwall (Little Mix member) to discuss the issues at hand. Jade discusses racial attacks she faced when she was younger such as having bleach thrown over her. ‘I know that being white meant you had an easier ride so I thought if you see me as white I'm not gonna stand up and scream in your face because I know there’s privilege that comes with that,’ states Jade. Jade uncovers that, ‘in the pop industry people do not want to hear young women, especially young women of colour talking about social issues and I think a lot of that is out of fear because they know the influence we have on our young fan base.’
Although contemporary music is dominated by genres such as R&B and hip-hop it isn’t reflected in the numbers within the industry. For instance, Sony Music’s board has only one black member out of twelve as well as Universal Music Group only have one black member against eleven members. Leigh-Anne reached out to her label Sony Music, but didn't get the response she was after initially. They happened to put forward the head of marketing who was another woman of colour. ‘It is almost like let's put two black women in a room to solve the issue of racism… There’s a problem, let's address it.’ The label wouldn’t meet with her and Jade as they didn’t want to be on camera. Furthermore Leigh-Anne emphasised that ‘it’s not about catching anyone out, I wanted people to see my label leading by example.’
A manager tells the Rolling Stone ‘we’re not looking for these corporations to change everything in a day,’ ‘we’re looking for them to say, ‘we’re wrong, we don’t make money without the black community, here’s a fund we set aside to utilise as you see fit.’ In the end, Leigh-Anne secures a meeting over the phone with three people from her label. In the meeting Leigh-Anne expresses her confusion as to why she’s faced with a predominantly white team every time, ‘it shouldn't be like that.’ Sony revealed how they’ve started to help, such as, giving out paid internships. On top of this Sony and Warner Music both donated $100 million globally to tackle equal rights and discrimination. More change can be seen with the Universal Music Group donating $25 million towards a ‘change fund.’
Leigh-Anne is launching a foundation with Andre and sister Sairah, and plans to fund internships and mentor schemes for black people of all ages entering the creative industries, and to distribute money to black charities and organisations. The Black Fund was created with regards to ‘The Give Back Grant’ which is set up to grant £5,000 to support the black community.
Documentaries like these will educate, inform, and influence a wide audience. To finish, Leigh-Anne is one of many getting involved in the fight for change. This gives hope to many.
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