Duffy: 'Skin Colour Doesn't Matter When It Comes To Soul Music'

She hits back at Estelle...

by Jason Gregory
11 April 2008
Photo by: WENN

Duffy: 'Skin Colour Doesn't Matter When It Comes To Soul Music'

Welsh songstress Duffy has hit back at claims made by Estelle that suggested the British music industry isn’t willing to market black soul singers.

Speaking to BBC Newsbeat, Duffy said that “if the talent and the desire is there, I don’t really think it matters what colour you are."

In an interview with the Guardian recently, Estelle, who is currently on top of the UK singles charts, said she couldn’t understand why there wasn’t “a single black person in the press singing soul.”

"Adele ain't soul. She sounds like she heard some Aretha [Franklin] records once and she's got a deeper voice - that don't mean she's soul," she continued.

"They keep trying to tell me in the media what soul music is and I'm like, we know what soul music is."

Duffy, whose debut album ‘Rockferry’ held the number one spot in the Album Charts until last Sunday, accused Estelle of not looking hard enough for black talent.

"We don’t live in the 1950s any more, we're in a multicultural country,” she said.

"So no, I think that’s pretty far from the truth, look around and I think you'll see that it [Black Soul] really does exist."

Who do you think is right? Leave a comment below and let us know...

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Soul is a matter of perspective whatever your colour. I agree that in the current climate it is actually harder for black soul artists to make it. It’s because there is an expectation for black soul singers to sound good because inherantly soul music is black in origin, whereas it is deemed a bit more extraordinary for white singers to posses the same emotive quality. When a white person sings soul their worth is rightly or wrongly judged on how black they sound. I know, I’m a white
~ by Hewy - The Spheres 3 months, 2 weeks ago
Estelle needs to stop playing the race card. From where I’m standing her skin colour seems to have helped her get to number one with a very mediocre song.
~ by Only18 3 months, 2 weeks ago

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Last time I saw any Music channel it was jam packed full of Black Artists, and even the lovely Estelle herself. The Industry is Racist? What is Soul? Nobody Knows, but people keep talkin about We got Soul’” - Ben E King Even top ’soul’ artists are unable to specify exactly what soul is. - BlackInformant.com .. But Estelle KNOWS! - and its BLACK MUSIC so white people DON’’T try it! Cant Black people see how inflammatory this is?
~ by Indie Kid | Send Message | 1 month, 1 week ago