Commentarista

According to Hits Daily Double, Beyonce has sold 313,420 copies of  latest released album “4″  within the first week following its release, resulting in another #1 album for the singer.  All of this success has come the singer’s way despite the controversy resulting from her picture on the album’s cover, or maybe it resulted because of it?

Beyoncé’s back and brighter than ever. The relentless worker that she is, her fourth album, the appropriately named 4, is already receiving buzz via her first single and music video, plus album cover art.

If you take one glance at the album cover, questions will inevitably arise — is that Britney? Ke$ha? Shakira? Nope. The bedraggled blonde mop and pale skin don’t belong to a white pop singer. It is the one and only Beyoncé, in full “did she bleach her skin?” glory.

The complaint over Beyoncé’s rumored color complex goes all the way back to her Destiny’s Child days (the second incarnation), when an ousted group member claimed Beyoncé’s dad and then-manager, Matthew Knowles, made her tan her naturally light skin so that Beyoncé could remain the lightest in the group.

Since then, fans and foes have watched as she’s gotten blonder and brighter with each passing album. By the time she hit 2007′s duet with Shakira, half the appeal of the video was the carbon copy mind trick they executed on screen — which one’s which? [thegrio.com]

We saw this type of “black-to-white” transformation with Michael Jackson.  Now, the King of Pop was afflicted with vitiligo,  a skin condition that had him using medications that whitened his skin over the years.  Of course, this skin condition did not explain why his nose also got narrower with time, but hey, by now, we are all familiar with Michael Jackson’s abuse-riddled childhood and his monstrous father, who often told the young singer that he was ugly, and how this all converged to make him into a plastic surgery pin cushion.  So what’s Beyonce’s excuse for her “whitening ways”?  Does she have some hidden childhood color-complex, or has she simply caved into entertainment industry pressure to “go white”?  Considering how hugely successful she is, we doubt that she has to do anything against her will.  Come on, we’re talking Beyonce here.  She can decide how black (or white) she really is- unfortunately, given her rapidly changing shades, her fans evidently can’t say the same.

image: www.thegrio.com