Racist Bollywood Song About Beyoncé Being Jealous of ‘Fair Skin’ Sparks Outrage

Racist Bollywood Song About Beyoncé Being Jealous of ‘Fair Skin’ Sparks Outrage
Ryan General
September 11, 2020
A Bollywood film’s song about Beyoncé has earned the ire of many online for its racist and sexist lyrics.
 
Eyebrow raising lyrics: The song titled “Beyoncé Sharma Jayegi,” received criticisms for its lyrics which included a line that translates to, “Beyonce will feel insecure after seeing you, fair-skinned lady.”
  • The song was performed by Indian actors Ananya Panday and Ishaan Khatter who played the leads in the movie.
  • Indian musical duo Vishal-Shekhar composed the track for the upcoming Bollywood film “Khali Peeli.”
  • Vishal Dadlani, one of the writers of the song, came out in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement just a few months ago.
  • A video of the song was uploaded to YouTube on Sunday and has so far generated nearly 10 million views as of this writing.
  • The song has over 840,000 dislikes compared to only 88,000 likes on the video-sharing site. 
  • The song also made sexist references toward women about being “gaudy” and having “lots of tantrums.”
Courting controversy: The song has since angered social media users, with many questioning how the song was released in the first place.
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  • One Twitter user pointed out the glorification of light skin, with companies selling skin-whitening products becoming the center of sharp criticism in the past.
  • “This is just blatantly ignoring the fact how they’re glorifying fair skin (yet again) and then comparing it to Beyoncé (a black woman). This is RACIST,” the user wrote.
  • “These Bollywood Industry now is literally out of sense. Think twice before saying something. Where @Beyonce is fighting for the racism and making it normalized and these videos lyrics saying (Beyoncé Sharma jayegi) such a stupidest meaning of song ever heard,” another user wrote.
Apologies for Queen Bey: Beyoncé, who is known for promoting body positivity, has featured South Asian women in her music videos multiple times in the past, such as her song “BROWN SKIN GIRL.”
  • The American singer has an active fanbase in India where many expressed their apologies to her for the song.
  • “Oh Dear! #BeyonceSharmaJayegi Might be the worse thing I’ve seen ever! 🤮 I’d like to apologize to @Beyonce for this racist sexist hot mess. #BLM #mondaythoughts,” TV personality Andy Kumar tweeted.
  • Zee Music, the record company behind the song, has yet to address the backlash online.
Feature Image (left) via Zee Music Company, (right) Tidal
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