Fury on the Race After White Celeb Blacked and Said N-Word While Performing Kendrick Lamar’s Hit on Polish Karaoke TV Show…and WINS First Prize
- Kuba Szmajkowski won the Your Face Sounds Familiar TV show for her performance
A Polish TV show has sparked outrage after featuring celebrity contestants dressed in blackface and acting like Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar.
In the singing competition called Your Face Sounds Familiar, singer Kuba Szmajkowski appeared as one of eight celebrities who performed karaoke versions of popular songs while trying to imitate the original artist’s style.
To the delight of the jury who praised the 21-year-old’s performance as “amazing”, “brilliant” and “a big WOW”, after winning the completion, Szmajkowski donated the prize money to a children’s cancer organisation.
Polish actress Pola Gonciarz also appeared as a “blackened” Beyoncé, singing If I Were a Boy.
Clips of both performances have gone viral, with viewers calling them “disgusting.”
Kuba Szmajkowski and backing dancers perform at Your Face Sounds Familiar singing competition
Polish celebrity Szmajkowski, who is white, in a social media image at London’s Tower Bridge.
The singer posted the behind-the-scenes makeup process before his performance.
One outraged viewer wrote: “You can appreciate culture or art without being offensive or painting yourself black.”
Complaining about Szmajkowski’s performance, another said: ‘Why did they let him say the word ‘n****’ knowing it was a very racist term? (…) Very unpleasant on the part of the producers and the performer.
‘As a dark-skinned person, I am outraged by this performance!’
Another commented: “That’s really disgusting,” while another posted: “Kendrick needs to file the nastiest copyright lawsuit ever.”
Polish actress Pola Gonciarz was also criticized on social media after posting clips on Instagram.
One follower said: ‘This is incredibly wrong and ignorant. Blackface should never be done, anywhere. We shouldn’t put costumes the color of people’s skin.’
Another complained: ‘It’s shocking that this type of racism has been allowed on TV in 2023,’ while one outraged fan said: ‘What are you doing????? You can’t blacken your skin to pretend to be African American! This is so ignorant!!!’
After winning the completion, Szmajkowski donated the prize money to a childhood cancer organization.
Kuba Szmajkowski appeared as one of eight celebrities performing karaoke versions of popular songs while attempting to imitate the original artist’s style.
In a 2021 episode, actor Tomasz Ciachorowski also went black in Kanye West’s cover of ‘Stronger.’
After removing the N-word, the TV show responded by saying, “Dear viewers, we are very surprised by the number of negative comments regarding the [sic] television show Your face sounds familiar.
‘The Polish edition of the show, considered exemplary abroad, always tries to show great performances, which strive to get as close as possible to the original. The charity aspect of the show is incredibly important to us and the artists involved in the show.
He added: “The intention of each star who performs on the show, as well as the entire production team, is to recreate the original performance as accurately as possible, while honoring the original artist.”
Now, a video has resurfaced from a 2021 performance on the same show by Polish actor Tomasz Ciachorowski, who went black while covering Kanye West’s ‘Stronger’.
