K-pop has paved the way for women to stand tall in the music industry, but there’s been some question as to why there aren’t more diverse artistes in the K-pop market.
Well, for starters, there aren’t many diverse artistes who perform exclusively in Korean. Until now.
There’s a new all-girl K-pop group ready to launch and they’re called Black Swan (not to be confused with BlackPink, of course), and Black Swan has a Senegalese vocalist!
Fatou Samba, or known as her stage name, Fatou, is the main rapper, main dancer and a vocalist for the upcoming girl group under DR Entertainment, as according to KProfiles. They’ll be debuting some time this year, as a rebranded version of RaNia.
Other members of Black Swan include YoungHeun, Hyeme, Judy and Leia.
But this isn’t the first time RaNia has had a member of darker colour.
Based on Bias Wrecker, Alex Reid is an African-American musician who was formally part of RaNia, though, during her time, they rebranded the band to be called BP Rania, or Black Pearl Rania.
Many netizens rejoiced at the fact that Fatou’s presence in the group meant that there’s more dark-skin representation in an industry that embraces fairer skin tones, but that also caused many of them to fear for her.
Others also pointed out that the word ‘black’ is often associated as a branding or marketing for K-Pop groups who include diversity or members of darker skin tones.
But despite all the fear, netizens only have well wishes for Fatou.
We honestly cannot wait to see what Fatou has in store for us and shake up the K-Pop industry.
Who knows, her presence may very well open more opportunities for darker-skinned women to participate in the largely loved genre.
What do you think about this? Let us know in the comment section.
Also read: Malaysian Organisers Of K-Pop Festival, WKNDFEST Sued For Breach Of Contract
