Beyonce pays tribute to Fela Kuti in French Magazine | Welcome to Linda Ikeji's Blog

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Sunday 20 February 2011

Beyonce pays tribute to Fela Kuti in French Magazine


French Magazine, L’Official, had Beyonce decorated in a traditional African theme headdress, as well as blackface, in a tribute to Fela Kuti.



Via L’Official:
The Fashion magazine is about to celebrate its 90th birthday. To celebrate this anniversary, the festivities start with the March issue, with Beyoncé on the cover. She agreed to pose for an incredible fashion shoot, with the theme of African Queen, paying a tribute to the legendary Fela Kuti. Far from the glamorous Sasha Fierce, the beauty posed for the magazine with amazing fashion designers clothes, but also in a dress created by her mother. [It is] A return to her African roots, as you can see on the picture, on which her face was voluntarily darkened. All the pictures will be available in the collector edition, on sell at the end of this month.

The video

31 comments:

NaijaScorpio said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

i can already see people being ignorant and highly stupid while commenting! so please use your common sense! dont mention beyonce bleaching and shit like the idiots on bella naija!

NaijaScorpio said...

and they had to paint her black because......? I thot she was black, i guess she wasn't black enough. Stupid pple.

Anonymous said...

Alicia says...
such nonsense! why couldn't a Nigerian model pay tribute? or is it because of the Fela musical thing or what? and the fact that they had to dark her skin instead of finding an already-dark celebrity or model. hissssssss.

Anonymous said...

kelly rowland would have been a suitable model....and u anonymous 11:11AM......every one is free to mention what ever they feel like.

Elsie said...

madame sting very apt..why on earth the black face..what an insult...and she let them do that to her....only in France..if it was here in the US all hell will break lose..all the civil rights groups and black associations will descend on them...

Terrence said...

I find this picture very very racist. I guess the only way to depict an african person or african culture is to paint her face with black paint. No be there fault. Mtsheeewwww. And beyonce should be ashamed of her self. Then again i wont blame her, her father and grand papa black like charcoal so why wont she accept.

Abike said...

Please what's that link again about the truth about images in videos? Someone put it up on the Rihanna perfume ad

Noble E. said...

They asked Beyoncé to do it because she is a superstar and not some random model. So a black woman can't pay tribute to a black man?

Anonymous said...

very very very...offensive!

skankmypeaceofmind said...

bitch please

Linda, i think you have some douche-bag with no identity who is willing to take everyone down here for stating their opinions

Ada said...

I don't see anything wrong in Beyonce paying tribute to Fela Kuti, the shoot does not surround just Fela, it's because it's themed "African Queen", isn't it her they want to feature at the end of the day? It's not like it's a campaign and they made her the face or anything...about black face, i don't see the point

Thelma Chidi said...

i dont understand the blackface and the leopard skin dress.it shows what they still think of africans. they should have stopped at the headgear pix which is more glamorous.

uju said...

now i know Nigerians are full of hatered. imagine after denting our own image with the fast and wasteful life style we live. worst is the dead political situation. Fela died years ago and no one remembered him. jay z took it upon himself to push the fela broadway and now this one on l'officiel. we should appriciate that something good is coming out of Nigeria rather than say such.
who knows Oluchi and Agbani in the real International setting? you guys wake up! all you complaining what have you done to put the nation's name in good light?

Anonymous said...

D link on d meaning of videos n pictures is vigilantcitizens.com

Anonymous said...

Alicia says...
@uju....you totally missed the point. anyway, i will not waste my time because you already seem too shallow-minded.

u said...

@Alicia if you think you are that deep why don't you explain what you mean than insulting.

Eki said...

You guys care too much about irrelevant issues. So what if they painted her face dark-brown? So what if they are rascist? So whatabout so many things you argue an dinsult each other over? Really there are much more important things in life to make your blood boil, than inherent rascism. Beyonce being paid millions to paint her face dark and pose as an African queen is none of our collective business.....Observe and enjoy the positive attributes of the picture or whatever and move on.....

Bisi said...

@Uju first off Jay-z was not the only producer of the musical. Also who has ever heard of l'officiel you are saying they put the nation in positive light. Actually they didn't. And they are talking about Africa not even Nigeria. Going back to the fact that alot of people regard Africa as a country not as a continent filled with many different nations. If you cannot see a problem with black face and relating it to African roots then I don't know what to say to you.

Drajke said...

Start your own mag and feature whomever you want...

It's easy to criticize and destroy, much more difficult to build and enhance...

hater said...

see nothing wrong.

paying homage and giving honor to a legend.

weldone bey!

Anonymous said...

I do not have a problem with Beyonce doing the tribute. Both she and Fela a musicians, so it seems appropriate. However, I am offended that Beyonce had to be artificially darkened to be deemed Black. Is she not Black to begin with or is there something we do not know? Darkening Beyonce is reminiscent of white people doing Black face in order to mimick and put down Black people.

Anonymous said...

@Eki, if you have so much better things to do why are you even on a gossip blog. People can talk about what they want to. You fous on what you want to.

@Drajke, the word criticism was developed for a reason. Magazines need criticism to get better at their work. If you are so against criticism why are you even on a gossip blog? Go and focus on building and enhancing? Rubbish!

Anonymous said...

Beyonce na busybody on a normal day, her doing this just shows her hunger for attention. To me it wasnt necessary.

uju said...

men!!! you people are just full of complains. have you all forgotten that even Fela paints his face? so why the fuss about black face. we just keep complaining and cant make any difference. what significant thing are we doing? worst all the complainers are the Nigerians living abroad who live lousy lifestyles and indulge in credit card fraud and all manner of image denting lifesytle you guys live there.@ Bisi i know it was not only Jazzy who produced it, was just an example @Alicia i can see you are jobless if you had work doing you wont sit and comment on every damned topic and thats why you are hating. Girl next time dont insult people if you think you are deep make your observations. Rubish!

VJ said...

Let them think bad about whatever please. Anybody can pay tribute. Every body wan talk sha!

Alicia says.. said...

@Uju, its official that you are just very daft! so what if Fela paints his face? do you know the reasons WHY? the REASON why Beyonce darkened her face is so she can try to "connect" it with mama Africa. its a f****** insult! so there are no longer any light skinned Africans? she is now too light to be getting the message across about Africa? thats why people remain so ignorant about us, because we just sit there and nod and smile at anything the west calls "African inspired"
do you not know the history behind blackface in America? look it up.
the reason why you're so "let it go" about this is because you're just trying to sit there and accept it. when will we stop sitting down and doing nothing about stuff like this? WHEN? all i can say is dont buy their stuff, period.
"the Nigerians living abroad who live lousy lifestyles and indulge in credit card fraud and all manner of image denting lifesytle you guys live there." you see why i said you're daft? what sort of ignorant comment is that? maybe its your own family members abroad that engage in fraudulent behavior. or were you denied a VISA? keep being blind to the world around you.
you are the definition of DUMB.

Keeping up with the Ikejichians said...

Wooow! Linda Ikeji!!! This is like a place for people to 'vent' out their frustrations eeeh.
If you come here to comment, just get ready to 'deal' with another person's perspective, irrespective of their state of mind.

Thank goodness for PCs, some people no go fit talk if invited to talk shows to air their views.

It is what it is. Good stuff Linda, Enough comments for ya!!!

Sometimes I come here to 'watch' fight..lol bring it on ladies and gents - I'm enjoying this...all da way from far far away!

lol!!!!!

Anonymous said...

@ Drajke, true

@ pucholatinah, that's the stereotype that will always follow Africa.

You know what, Africans will never win in the argument of stereotypes, let's just learn to ignore.

I think we Africans should just focus on building the continent in big and small ways. Let's continue to pray for the continent for CHANGE. When people say stupid things about Africa or do things that they think only represent Africa in their ignorance, I don't pay attention and they end up looking stupid.

Afterall, Africa is filled will black faces, so I'm not offended by the blackface. I think it's the negative stereotype that has come with being dark that makes everything wrong. The whole of Africa could be full of light faces or white faces and people will still think what they want to think about Africa.

My problem is the message. I'm not a Fela fan(I actually don't understand the hype) but if you are paying tribute to someone, it should have influence of the person or music and nothing in that picture reminds me of Fela or Africa.

hater said...

uju, how do you know she is commenting on every damn topic, if you also are not doing the same huh? the case of a pot calling a kettle black!

Anonymous said...

please, that is not a traditional "African"headress, that is a NIGERIAN headress... im really getting tired of this African generalisation, and coming from a Nigerian its even more insulting.
p.s how does this in anyway pay homage to fela???

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