European reality tv show "Your face sounds familiar" does (a lot of) blackface
"Your Face Sounds Familiar" is a tv show franchise that got its beginnings in 2011 as the Spanish "Tu cara me suena". The basic premise of the show is that a few (10 or less) entertainers from different fields are rounded up and assigned allegedly random music artists they have to impersonate for every show. Sometimes they get voted out, sometimes it’s too confusing for me to try and make sense of it.
Over the years this show has spread around the world like an infectious disease, one of the symptoms of which is blackface. I had originally planned on writing a long and thoroughly researched ONTD Original on this at a later time but things started to unravel a bit earlier than I expected (which was never tbh, considering the local track record). Blackface, and possibly other racist acts, is quite common in the Estonian version of the show "Su nägu kõlab tuttavalt" and the finale of the 6th season featured 3 white girls doing blackface Salt-N-Pepa which outraged many people on- and offline.
However, as this is not the only time nor the only show from the franchise that has featured blackface and I was planning on writing a longer piece, I thought I'd add some more examples. And I was originally going to write how this show was problematic in monoracial, less developed countries or countries that have not been racially diverse or developed for very long but as I looked into it, even the original Spanish version has a ton. So here's a little list that honestly could be a lot longer.
Some of the videos were lost to bad formatting. They're visible now. Hf. k i'm not even sure anymore, idk.
Click to viewAlyson "Aly" Eckmann is a 27 year ols Spanish tv personality who lived in the USA until she was 18.
The Spanish version is ongoing and the 6th season is currently airing.
Mando is a Greek singer who won the episode with this performance.
As a disabled person, this also comes off quite ableist.
Michael Pangilinan is a Filipino singer.
Whiteface isn't a thing.
Azis is a Bulgarian singer.
He is known for making really homosexual folk music.
And, last but not least, here a bunch of what inspired me to write this:
- This clip, the beginning of which features a whopping 4 performers in blackface. (Ella Fitzgerald, local artist Monika Tuvi, Ray Charles and Rihanna)
- According to a local news portal's listicle, there have been 69 cases of blackface on the show. Not sure whether this number includes the backup dancers and singers (probably not tbh).
- These performers imitating Alicia Keys, Macy Gray, Andre 3000 (credited as "Outkast"), Aretha Franklin (the only performance currently not listed on the show's wiki page), Lil Wayne, Boney M (or a member of it), Tony Braxton, Etta James, Kanye West, Rihanna, Michael Jackson (more than once), Nicki Minaj (2 in 1), Little Richard, Lenny Kravitz, M.I.A., Gloria Gaynor, Marvin Gaye, Minnie Riperton, The Village People, of course Salt-N-Pepa and many more.
Sources:
Text: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Images: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Videos: 1 2 3 4 5
I'm a relatively new member and this is my first post and I'm terrified. Btw, I'm white and I hope this post isn't me speaking over PoC etc. I really do find this shit offensive as fuck. Edit: original header image was removed, updated it.