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Former Sugababes singer Keisha Buchanan has opened up about the racism she faced from the music industry after she left the band.
The now 35-year-old left the group in 2009 after the departures of Mutya Buena and Siobhán Donaghy and was often blamed by the media as the instigator for the split.
Speaking on This Morning, Buchanan shared that she approached someone in a senior position at the record company to find out where the rumours were coming from.
It was then that she realised they were using her as a “scapegoat” to excuse why the album wasn’t doing as well as they hoped.
She said: “They told me I was being used as collateral because it made sense as the girls’ album wasn’t doing well.”
Buchanan also told hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield: “If you’re using someone’s character to manipulate them and it’s based on perception – some of these people had never met me and decided I was the instigator.”
She then went on to share some of her experiences of “systemic racism”, saying that she was often made to think it was “bullying” to ask for a share in songwriting credentials and that she was made to feel “difficult” when it came to contracts.
Buchanan went on: “It has changed the course of my life a lot. I’m critical of myself anyway so now I’m even more so, and it allowed me to not have many boundaries because I felt like if I had these boundaries I would be seen as being aggressive.”
Last week, Buchanan detailed the “trauma” of being stereotyped as an “angry black woman”.
Taking to YouTube, Buchanan said: “I have never bullied anyone in my life [but] after a while I felt like no one would believe me.”
