Races in anger after white celebrity blacks out and says N-word while performing Kendrick Lamar’s hit on Polish karaoke TV show… and wins the grand prize
- Kuba Szmajkowski won the TV program Your Face Sounds Familiar with his performance
A Polish TV show has sparked outrage after celebrity contestants dressed in blackface and performed as Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar.
On the singing competition show 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 ‘One big WOW’, Szmajkowski donated the prize money to a children’s cancer charity after winning.
Polish actress Pola Gonciarz also appeared as a ‘black-up’ Beyoncé and sang If I Were a Boy. Clips of both performances have now gone viral with viewers calling them ‘disgusting’.
One viewer complained about Szmajkowski’s performance, saying: ‘Why did they make him say the word ‘n****’ knowing it was a very racist term? (…) Very unpleasant on the part of the producers and the artist.
“As a dark-skinned person, I am outraged by this achievement!”
Kuba Szmajkowski and background dancers perform in the singing competition show Your Face Sounds Familiar
Polish celebrity Szmajkowski, who is white, in a photo from his social media at Tower Bridge in London
The singer posted the behind-the-scenes makeup process before his performance
Another outraged viewer wrote: ‘You can appreciate the culture or art without being offensive or using blackface.’
Another commented, “That’s actually disgusting,” while yet another said, “Kendrick needs to file the nastiest copyright lawsuit of all time.”
Polish actress Pola Gonciarz also faced criticism on social media after posting clips on Instagram.
One follower said: ‘This is so incredibly misleading and ignorant. Blackface should never be done anywhere. We shouldn’t put on people’s skin color as costumes.’
Another complained: ‘Shocking that this kind of racism was allowed on TV in 2023’, while an outraged fan said: ‘wtf are you DOING????? you can’t blacken your skin by pretending to be African American! this is so ignorant!!!’
After winning the completion, Szmajkowski donated the prize money to a children’s cancer organization
Kuba Szmajkowski appeared as one of eight celebrities who performed karaoke versions of popular songs while trying to imitate the original artist’s style
In a 2021 episode, actor Tomasz Ciachorowski also went blackface to cover Kanye West’s “Stronger.”
After removing the N-word, the TV show responded: ‘Dear viewers, we are very surprised by the number of negative reactions about the (sic) TV show Your Face Sounds Familiar.
‘The Polish edition of the show, which is considered exemplary abroad, always tries to show great performances, striving to be as close as possible to the original. Incredibly important to us, as well as to the artists taking part in the show, is the charity aspect of the programme.
It added: “The intention of every star performing in the show, and the entire production team, is to recreate the original performance in the most accurate way possible, while honoring the original artist.”
Now, another video has surfaced from a 2021 performance on the same show of Polish actor Tomasz Ciachorowski sporting blackface during Kanye West’s cover of ‘Stronger’.