An old message gets a makeover in Beyoncé’s Brown Skin Girl

7 aoû 2019 - 18:46

Since 'Brown Skin Girl' was released about three weeks ago, Beyoncé’s nod to dark-skinned women has inspired the #BrownSkinGirlChallenge on social media, earned Blue Ivy Carter her debut on Billboard’s Hot 100 and has been adopted as an anthem by many who appreciate the beauty of being black or brown-skinned.

Beyoncé.

Featuring the vocal talents of Blue Ivy Carter, the singer and actress’ daughter, Guyanese rapper Saint Jhn, Nigeria's Wizkid, this track is delivered against a mellow reggae backdrop. Blue Ivy and Saint Jhn start the song by singing its now-iconic chorus: “Brown skin girl / Your skin just like pearls / The best thing in the world / Never trade you for anybody else,” while Wizkid comes in with the first verse. Queen Bey takes a backseat in this one, featuring from the song’s second verse.

Although this isn’t Beyoncé’s first women-centred effort, with hits such as 'Run The World (Girls)' and 'Single Ladies' to her name, 'Brown Skin Girl' takes on a significant component of an identity that many are yet to fully embrace and delivers a timely message in an age of colourism and skin-whitening products. It encourages women around the world to embrace their dark skin tones and specifically mentions successful, dark-skinned superstars such as Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o, supermodel Naomi Campbell and Beyoncé’s former Destiny’s Child bandmate, Kelly Rowland, to reinforce this message.

'Brown Skin Girl' joins a list of similar songs that have preceded it from around the world. In their Destiny’s Child days, Beyoncé and former bandmate Rowland sang the love ballad 'Brown Eyes'. There was India Arie’s hit 'Brown Skin', an ode to what today’s netizens constantly celebrate as black love and melanin appreciation, prominent from time immemorial in films like Love Jones, Soul Food, The Best Man franchise, Love and Basketball, Brown Sugar and most recently About Last Night and Think Like a Man. On the continent, 2Baba's classic 'African Queen' adores a black woman in all her beauty and elegance.

Before all these songs was the traditional Jamaican folksong 'Brown Girl in the Ring', made popular globally by Boney M.’s 1978 recording. Also originating from the Caribbean is Harry Belafonte’s Brown Skin Girl', a calypso tune about American navy personnel who abandoned their local lovers with mixed-race babies (so-called ‘GI babies’).

All these songs highlight some historical aspects of being black despite prevailing odds. Beyoncé and Co's current hit benefits, above all, from the socio-cultural currency of its message, her clout and that of her transnational collaborators, as well as the song’s timely ‘coupling’ with the 2019 reboot of Disney’s The Lion King. Take all or some of this away and 'Brown Skin Girl' might not hold a candle to its predecessors.

'Brown Skin Girl' may have become the film's standout track, but it’s just one of many tracks from an album that spotlights some of the continent’s most popular musical talents, including Burna Boy, Yemi Alade, Tiwa Savage, Tekno, Shatta Wale and Mr Eazi.