Alexandra Burke opens up about being labelled ‘aggressive’ and told to ‘smile more’ because she’s Black

Singer says industry racism ‘only hit’ her when she ‘got asked to bleach’ skin after ‘X Factor’

Alexandra Burke has opened up about the discrimination she has faced in her career for being Black.

The singer, who wonThe X Factor in 2008, said that she was told “because you’re Black, you won’t get that far” when appearing on talent show, Star for a Night, as a 12-year-old in 2001.

“Industry people were saying it as well as Joe Bloggs,” she told The Guardian. “The remarks came quite often and were difficult to digest.”

Burke says that “it only really hit me when I got asked to bleach my skin after X Factor”.

The singer, who first made this revelation in 2020, said that the suggestion was made by “a certain person on the creative side” she worked with on the show.

Burke also shared an incident that occurred in 2017 ahead of a performance at the London Palladium during a show honouring Sir Bruce Forsyth.

“I had my hair in a bun, with a couple of baby hairs,” she said. “It was classic, classy. Half an hour before I was due on stage, my hair stylist came up to me and said: ‘I’ve just been told you look quite aggressive with this hairstyle. We need to change it.’

Burke continued: “I said: ‘What?’ He said: ‘Your record label’s just told me you look aggressive, so we have to change it.’ I said: ‘What part of me looks aggressive?’ He said it was the baby hairs stuck to my head.”

Also in 2017, Burke said she decided to let her management team go following her stint on Strictly Come Dancing after they told her to “smile more”.

Burke, who said that her her mother was dying of kidney failure in hospital at the time, revealed that she was told: “Every time you don’t smile, nobody warms to you.”

Alexandra Burke was told to ‘smile more’ during her appearance on ‘Strictly’ in 2017 (Getty Images)

Burke said that she “prays that one day” discrimination such as this in the industry “changes completely”, but that she believes “it won’t be in our lifetime”.

The singer can currently be seen starring in London’s West End production of Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat.